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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194603">The Shadows of Our Hearts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHeartZyx/pseuds/CrystalHeartZyx'>CrystalHeartZyx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Shadows of the Heroes [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M, Follows Main Story, I tried writing romance, Like even more OCs than before, M/M, Oh look it's still going, This develops as it goes, Too Many OCs, Torturing my characters, Where has this story gone to?</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:07:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>199,739</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23194603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalHeartZyx/pseuds/CrystalHeartZyx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Wars are on the horizon; demigods, gods, giants, and everything else prepare. Seven demigods are recovering from trauma while facing their most difficult trials yet. Among them are three Primordial deities born of many sacrifices. However, they may have their own agenda; the gods may be facing a downfall at the hands of Khaos itself, and no one can stop it. Follows Blood of Olympus</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>(A Lot) of My OCs, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Jason Grace/Piper McLean</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Shadows of the Heroes [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1394191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. What Gods May Ponder</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!</p><p>With life being quarantined at the very least I have time to do some writing on my stories that I need to start the next/final chapter of. I still have to read a book and do some calculus and I'm super bummed that everything had to happen literally the WEEK of my shows for the musical that we'd been working on for months now. We lost our most popular shows but at least we got a few free shows and some small paid shows out and recorded one for a DVD.</p><p>I recommend going back to my other stories in the Shadow series before you read this, but I'll try and put reminders as we go so you can maybe get the gist of stuff.</p><p>Anyway, I'm back, I've got a lot of plans for my stories (this one especially), so let's get right into it!</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><div class="xcontrast">
  <p></p>
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    <p></p>
    <div>
      <p>Third Person: Tartarus</p>
      <p>He could not tell you precisely what they were thinking. Omnipotence only went so far when you were nothing but an eternal being of torture.</p>
      <p>Rage consumed his being, frustration, and among it all, confusion.</p>
      <p>"Follow me, darling son!" Khaos exclaimed.</p>
      <p>Technically, the being before him was not Order nor Chaos, but it was both of them. Because the concept of Khaos came first and Order was born of Chaos, Tartarus always defaulted to Khaos. It didn't matter anyway. He usually just referred to it as 'it.' He now had the need for proper names and pronounce. Ugh, it gave him a headache.</p>
      <p>"Where are we going?" he grumbled, his face blank and expressionless.</p>
      <p>"Oh, now cheer up, little Tartar." Khaos patted him on the head in a demeaning way. Tartarus wanted to rip that stupid human body limb from limb. "I thought you'd be happy to be up here in the human world! You were trying oh-so-hard to come here before, weren't you?"</p>
      <p>Tartarus didn't respond, only glaring at his parent(s) with a black gaze that would cause even the air itself it whither if it were directed at any other being.</p>
      <p>This was punishment, he supposed, for what he had done. He was being dragged around like a pet, taunted at every turn, and even when he was allowed the freedom to take over his body, he wasn't allowed to act freely at all. He was forced to do whatever Khaos wanted of him, and restored to its original state of all-powerfulness, Tartarus stood little chance. His parent(s) had done to him what he had attempted to do to it: extract his consciousness from the rest of his being. Though still powerful, he was significantly weaker. Even if he weren't, his full power paled in comparison to his parent(s)'.</p>
      <p>He learned that his plan was not feasible in any respect; his parent(s) had been playing with him, toying with him because they were bored. They were nearly <em>always</em> bored. There was a reason that Khaos so rarely appeared as its own separate entity in tales of the gods, and even if it was, it wasn't in very many myths beyond creation myths. One creation myth simply had Khaos being all alone, then suddenly it wasn't, and then there were no more mentions of it. Another didn't even name it Khaos. It was just emptiness; there was nothing, and then there was something.</p>
      <p>Khaos <em>was</em> everything. All of the gods, all of the matter and concepts - all of it was like the body parts of Khaos, and it was flexing its fingers, wiggling its toes, and letting its body, for the most part, act on its own. Like internal organs. Tartarus was a force, a concept, that mere mortals could not possibly hope to understand nor conquer.</p>
      <p>Tartarus had once thought that he was closest to his parent(s) and therefore closer to its equal - at least far closer than mortals were. Now he knew better.</p>
      <p>"You <em>stole</em> that host from me," Khaos went on, a spring in its step as it led Tartarus up a stairway of energy, "<em>ripped</em> it from my grasp! You had the <em>nerve</em> and the <em>gall</em> and the <em>presumption</em> to try and extinguish me while I was feeling down." Khaos clicked its tongue and waggled its finger at Tartarus. "And I might've let you get away with it too, if I hadn't planned it all. <em>If</em> perhaps, you had treated me <em>better</em>, darling, maybe I would've given you victory."</p>
      <p>"So then why am I here now?"</p>
      <p>Khaos came to a stop up the stairs. It turned dramatically, spreading its arms. "Because <em>love!</em> And a little bit of hope, too." Khaos tapped his nose with its finger. "Along with Gaea and you, the Primordial concept of love was one of my first creations. Love created this world, it <em>rules</em> it. Lack of love, too much love, twisted love, perfect love." Khaos gestured left, right, up, and down as it spoke. "I built this world to have emotions, and all emotions stem from a type of love. Some theorize that Eros is the son of Aphrodite, and others see him as one of my Primordial beings. The truth is that there are so many types of love, and the Eros <em>I</em> made <em>was</em> one of my first Primordial beings. The Eros born of <em>humanity</em> is the one that is a child to Aphrodite. We were just too lazy to come up with a new name for him, and honestly, humanity believes in what they want to believe. I could create a new concept and the humans might name it 'Doughnut, god of the sugar rush' and I really wouldn't correct them. I'm too lazy to come up with new names. All of you had no names at first. <em>I</em> had no name. It was humans who named us. Humans do everything for me. They're like my blood cells, zipping around, doing what they do. Sometimes good things, sometimes bad things, and maybe I could do something about it, but I'm too lazy."</p>
      <p>Tartarus internally sighed as he continued to follow Khaos up the stairs. It liked to rant about itself. Tartarus came to wonder if its omnipotence made it hard to keep realities straight and so it needed to reiterate what it knew just to remind itself.</p>
      <p>He was getting used to all this thinking and wondering stuff. His human was stronger than he'd thought. Of course it <em>did</em> have Tartarus's parent(s) on its side, but even so, Tartarus could poke and prod at the boy's mind easily enough. Unfortunately, the human - seemingly unintentionally - ended up doing the same to Tartarus, and since he was only his consciousness at the moment, both of them were giving each other headaches and influencing each other in ways neither of them wanted or intended. Tartarus could try influencing the boy to do something rash but instead he'd do something stupid like run face-first into one of the masts on the ship. The boy would try to get Tartarus to shut up and enjoy the sea and instead he'd start thinking about ways to dye it red with the blood of monsters, trying to guess how many it'd take to create a certain hue.</p>
      <p>Thinking and wondering and pondering - those weren't Tartarus-y things, but his brain wouldn't stop. No matter how much he just wanted to relax, he was constantly…THINKING. Did humans <em>always</em> have this happening?! If he'd known it would be <em>this</em> relentless, he might've <em>never</em> considered doing this. A god, especially a Primordial one, could clear their head at all times that they weren't directly needing to think. It was what made them uncreative - they thought what they needed to and never <em>imagined</em> or got <em>creative</em>. How did humans manage it? No wonder they were idiots; their poor heads were full of so much nonsense.</p>
      <p>It just added insult to injury from his parent(s)' punishment of trapping him within the body that he'd chosen to subdue. While normally he'd probably be able to shut the human up, now he was stuck melded with him. He wondered if Khaos had the same problem with <em>its</em> host. Khaos was already so unpredictable that it was hard to tell. Khaos probably had no problem since it was in charge and Tartarus was a prisoner in this body.</p>
      <p>"But enough about that." Khaos hopped up the final step. Tartarus squinted at the annoying brightness of this world. He wanted to turn the skies black and kill anything that powered that stupid ball of light in the sky. "I can tame you, my son, but I apparently <em>cannot</em> domesticate you. Where's the fun in that, anyway? No. I'm going to teach you a few lessons - and then I'm going to make you learn a few on your own."</p>
      <p>"Where are we?" Tartarus asked, squinting at Khaos suspiciously. Khaos obviously knew how Tartarus felt about being bonded to this human while not being in full control.</p>
      <p>"Olympus, of course! Home of the current gods." Khaos spun around, dancing around the fluff that Tartarus somehow knew were clouds. "I know you've always wanted to come here, son."</p>
      <p>"With an army to conquer the fools."</p>
      <p>"Semantics."</p>
      <p>Khaos took Tartarus through the glowing locale. It was eerily quiet. Tartarus expected it to be louder. Maybe that was his human, actually. Yes, Tartarus didn't <em>expect</em> things. He just knew things and learned things.</p>
      <p>"Why are we here?" he asked.</p>
      <p>"We've come to start some fun. I've been planning this for <em>centuries</em> dear; don't worry your pretty little head." It put its hand to its ear. "Listen. You hear that?"</p>
      <p>Tartarus looked around the barren structures, shimmering with what he assumed was beauty by the standards of gods and mortals. He thought it was silent, but as he began to listen, he started feeling a hum in the air. As he concentrated, he realized it was a scream. A wave of screams. It reminded him of home.</p>
      <p>"Who is suffering? It sounds like dozens."</p>
      <p>"Olympus has been closed for a while now, you see. The Greeks and Romans are tearing their deities apart. Now is the time."</p>
      <p>"The time for <em>what?</em>"</p>
      <p>Khaos held out its hand and summoned a weapon, a long, sleek blade with a black and white gradient pattern. It turned and smiled at Tartarus. He could tell that it was not a good smile.</p>
      <p>"Time to go crack Zeus's head open, of course."</p>
    </div>
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<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Welcome to Ithaca</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ugh I've been working on so many stories lately and this is the only series that I consistently write in 1st person (I have another one but it faces the same problem) so I keep slipping into 3rd person over and over. I end up getting out of the characters' heads and into a more narrator perspective, but I really do want to tell this story in 1st person. I apologize for any perspective shifts when I should be one person's POV them I mention them doing something by name.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>First Person: Audrey</p><p>Oh yay, I’m first! Let’s do this thing; we got a lot to get through and we're just getting started.</p><p>I could tell Jason was getting sick of being old. His joints hurt, his legs shook, and as he tried to climb the hill, his lungs rattled like a box of rocks. He couldn’t see his face (thank goodness) but his fingers were gnarled and bony. Bulging blue veins webbed the backs of his hands. He even had that old man smell - mothballs and chicken soup.  How was that possible? He’d gone from sixteen to seventy-five in a matter of seconds, but the old man smell happened instantly, like <em> boom </em>. Congratulations! You stink!</p><p>“Almost there.” Piper smiled at him. “You’re doing great.”</p><p>Easy for her to say. Piper, Emily, and Annabeth were disguised as lovely Greek serving maidens. Even in their white sleeveless gowns and laced sandals, they had no trouble navigating the rocky path. Even Kaze, who was similarly aged as Jason, still seemed to have a bounce in his step. I couldn’t tell if I should be concerned or relieved that when Kaze got old he’d still be moving faster than a human ever could.</p><p>Piper’s mahogany hair was pinned up in a braided spiral. Silver bracelets adorned her arms. She resembled an ancient statue of her mom, Aphrodite, which Jason found a little intimidating. Dating a beautiful girl was nerve-wracking enough. Dating a girl whose mom was the goddess of love…well, Jason was always afraid he’d do something unromantic, and Piper’s mom would frown down from Mount Olympus and change him into a feral. She wasn’t even debilitated between Aphrodite and Venus…</p><p>Jason glanced uphill. The summit was still a hundred yards above. “Worst idea ever.” He leaned against a cedar tree and wiped his forehead. “Hazel’s magic is too good. If I have to fight, I’ll be useless.”</p><p>“It won’t come to that,” Annabeth promised.</p><p>She looked uncomfortable in her serving-maiden outfit. She kept hunching her shoulders to keep the dress from slipping. Her pinned-up blonde bun had come undone in the back and her hair dangled like long spider legs. Knowing her hatred of spiders, I decided not to mention that aloud.</p><p>She couldn’t possibly look worse than Rei, at least. For a girl who had managed to tame the power of the most ancient primordial beings in existence, she sure had trouble with a dress. There was a reason that she hadn’t come on this mission with us, and it was because she would die within the first thirty minutes of having to struggle through looking like a servant. It was entirely possible for her to survive a dress, but it was like it was her life goal to look as awkward as possible in order to prove she wasn’t suited to such contraptions. She admitted that she felt more comfortable in a tux than she did a dress. She’d worn a suit for Halloween once and though she removed the jacket, she otherwise seemed happy enough.</p><p>“We infiltrate the palace,” Annabeth said. “We get the information we need and we get out.”</p><p>Piper set down her amphora, a tall ceramic wine jar in which her sword was hidden. “We can rest for a second. Catch your breath, Jason.”</p><p>From her waist cord hung her cornucopia - the magic horn of plenty. Tucked somewhere in the folds of her dress was her knife, Katoptris. Piper didn’t look dangerous, but if the need arose, she could dual-wield Celestial bronze blades or shoot her enemies in the face with ripe mangoes.</p><p>Similarly, Emily was a daughter of Aphrodite (an adopted daughter of Aphrodite; she was actually a mind-child of Hestia - basically an artificial creation of Hestia). She was the kindest human being you’d ever meet, but she was invincible, she had been learning to wield a knife in battle, and she controlled the Hearth of Hestia, allowing her to wield healing fire, transform into fire, and of course light the way in dark places. She also had a pin called the Dove of Aphrodite, a trinket that allowed her to disguise herself and turn invisible, as well as blend into a situation by using expectations against someone. She was the best stealth agent we had, so to speak. Along with Piper, she had the powers of charmspeak and she could speak French. Cheery.</p><p>“Why stop?” Kaze muttered. He danced around the area, muttering things in his native tongue. Though he could translate at his own leisure, he preferred Japanese most of the time. “I am ready for the mission! Whoosh!” He punched the air and sent a small cyclone forward to shake the leaves on the tree.</p><p>“<em> He </em> seems happy,” Emily noted.</p><p>“I think Azrael’s been doing a little <em> too </em> much emotion training,” I muttered.</p><p>Kaze’s soul was suppressed in his current body, an artificial body made by Gaea that Kaze was forced into agreeing to be transferred into. In a way, he might’ve <em> wanted </em> that body, because his mother and Rei’s father had been made into the undead reanimations who were far faster, stronger, and more ruthless than anything they could stand up to. They were fast adaptors, too. Once Kaze’s speed had been enough to outrun them, but they had quickly become more powerful. Kaze had bargained with them that they would save Azrael and Emily and when he had returned, he had rescued Leo from being thrown into the sky by the ice goddess Khione. He had become less human, but Azrael and his powers as a Reaper allowed him to access the Veil as well as manipulate and destroy the souls of humans and essences of gods. He managed to bring Kaze’s soul and emotions back - even if he was still in a porcelain-like body with black sclera.</p><p>Azrael hadn’t come on this mission, or at least that’s what we might <em> think </em>. Since he had control over the Veil - a layer basically where ghosts were and such - he could slip into the Veil and let time pass on the outside far faster than inside the Veil. He could move about the world and waste time at his own leisure, and he will be invisible to anyone who wasn’t attuned to the Veil. I didn’t trust that he wasn’t watching us at any time - especially when it came to watching over Kaze.</p><p>Annabeth slung her own amphora off her shoulder. She too had a concealed sword; but even without a visible weapon, she looked deadly. Her stormy gray eyes scanned the surroundings, alert for any threat. If any dude asked Annabeth for a drink, I figured she was more likely to kick the guy in the bifurcum.</p><p>I sat down on a tree root with my amphora still across my body. With my powers to control liquids, it was easy to just make the thing weigh less than it really did. My power set had become more and more advanced, and so holding up the water with my power was less of a struggle than carrying the stuff manually.</p><p>Below us, Afales Bay glittered, the water so blue it might’ve been dyed with food coloring. A few hundred yards offshore, the Argo II rested at anchor. It’s white sails looked no bigger than postage stamps, its ninety oars like toothpicks. I imagined our friends on deck following our progress, taking turns with Leo’s spyglass, trying not to laugh as they watched Grandpa Jason hobble uphill.</p><p>“Stupid Ithaca,” Jason muttered.</p><p>He supposed the island was pretty enough. A spine of forested hills twisted down its center, Chalky white slopes plunged into the sea, inlets formed rocky beaches and harbors where red-roofed houses and white stucco churches nestled against the shoreline. The hills were dotted with poppies, crocuses, and wild cherry trees. The breeze smelled of blooming myrtle. All very nice - except the temperature was about a hundred and five degrees. The air was as steamy as a Roman bathhouse.</p><p>“Kaze, can I get a breeze over here?”</p><p>I slipped my hand into a fold of my dress where I held a hidden water bottle. Along with a sword and a retracted trident in a cuff on my wrist, I usually carried a lot of water on me. I pulled out a stream of water and held it up, turning it into an ice sheet and hovering it over to Kaze. He held his hand up and controlled the winds to send a breeze through the ice to cool down the air and basically give us a nice cool fan.</p><p>It would’ve been easy for Jason and Kaze to control the winds and fly everyone to the top of the hill, but <em> nooo </em>. For the sake of stealth, we had to trudge up the hill manually. Jason was complaining most about having to struggle along as an old dude with bad knees and chicken-soup stink.</p><p>He thought about his last climb, two weeks ago, when Hazel, Kaze, and he faced the bandit Sciron on the cliffs of Croatia. At least then Jason had been at full strength. What they were about to face would be much worse than a bandit.</p><p>“You sure this is the right hill?” Jason asked. “Seems kinda…I don’t know…<em> quiet </em>.”</p><p>Piper studied the ridgeline. Braided in her hair was a bright blue harpy feather - a souvenir from last night’s attack. The feather didn’t exactly go with her disguise, but Piper had earned it, defeating an entire flock of demon chicken ladies by herself while she was on duty. She downplayed the accomplishment, but I knew she felt good about it. The feather was a reminder that she wasn’t the same girl she had been last winter, when they’d first arrived at Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>“The ruins are up there,” Piper promised. “I saw them in Katoptris’s blade. And you heard what Hazel and Azrael said. ‘The biggest-’”</p><p>“‘The biggest gathering of evil spirits we’ve ever sensed,’” Jason recalled. “Yeah, sounds awesome.”</p><p>After battling through the underground temple of Hades, the last thing Jason wanted was to deal with more evil spirits. But the fate of the quest was at stake. The crew of the Argo II had a big decision to make. If we chose wrong, we would fail, and the entire world would be destroyed.</p><p>Piper’s blade, Hazel’s magic senses, visions from the Primordial duo, and Annabeth’s instincts all agreed - the answer lay here in Ithaca, at the ancient palace of Odysseus, where a horde of evil spirits had gathered to await Gaea’s orders. The plan was to sneak among them, learn what was going on, and decide the best course of action. Then get out, preferably alive.</p><p>Annabeth readjusted her golden belt. “I hope our disguises hold up. The suitors were nasty customers when they were alive. If they find out we’re demigods-”</p><p>“Hazel’s magic will work,” Piper said.</p><p>“I can protect you!” Kaze declared. “They stand no chance!” He punched his fists, summoning small breezes.</p><p>I sighed. The suitors; a hundred of the greediest, evilest cutthroats who’d ever lived. When Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, went missing after the Trojan War, this mob of B-list princes had invaded his palace and refused to leave, each one hoping to marry Queen Penelope and take over the kingdom. Odysseus managed to return in secret and slaughter them all - your basic happy homecoming. But if Piper and Azrael’s visions were right, the suitors were now back, haunting the place where they’d died.</p><p>It was hard to believe we were about to visit the actual palace of Odysseus - one of the most famous Greek heroes of all time. Then again, this whole quest had been one mind-blowing event after another. Some of us had just come back from the eternal abyss of Tartarus. Given that, I decided none of us should be complaining about the trek - like Jason being an old man.</p><p>“Well…” Jason steadied himself with his walking stick. “If I <em> look </em> as old as I feel, my disguise must be perfect. Let’s get going.”</p><p>Despite the heat, Jason began to shiver. I couldn’t tell if it was from his exhaustion or if it was because of his many nightmares. According to Emily, everyone had been having worse and worse nightmares since the House of Hades, and she’d been working to keep the mood light. Bless her heart, her smile did manage to warm anyone’s heart despite the severity of a situation.</p><p>Sometimes Jason stood in the underground temple of Epirus, the giant Clytius looming over him, speaking in a chorus of disembodied voices: ‘<em> It took all of you together to defeat me. What will you do when the Earth Mother opens her eyes? </em> ’ Other times he found himself at the crest of Half-Blood Hill. Gaea the Earth Mother rose from the soil - a swirling figure of dirty, leaves, and stones. ‘ <em> Poor child </em> .’ Her voice resonated across the landscape, shaking the bedrock under his feet. ‘ <em> Your father is the first among the gods, yet you are always second to best - to your Roman comrades, to your Greek friends, even to your family. How will you prove yourself? </em>’</p><p>His worst dream started in the courtyard of the Sonoma Wolf House. Before him stood the goddess Juno, glowing with the radiance of molten silver. ‘<em> Your life belongs to me, </em> ’ her voice thundered. ‘ <em> An appeasement from Zeus. </em>’ He knew he shouldn’t look, but he couldn’t close his eyes as Juno went supernova, revealing her true godly form. Pain seared Jason’s mind. His body burned away in layers like an onion.</p><p>Then the scene changed. Jason was still at the Wolf House, but now he was a little boy - no more than two years old. A woman knelt before him, her lemony scent so familiar. Her features were watery and indistinct, but he knew her voice: bright and brittle, like the thinnest layer of ice over a fast stream. ‘<em> I will be back for you, dearest. I will see you soon. </em>’</p><p>Every time Jason woke up from that nightmare, his face was beaded with sweat. His eyes stung with tears.</p><p>He wasn’t the only one. I had dreams about my days hiding my demigod life from my parents. The days wondering why I was so alone, why my father had left me to hide myself from my parents while also trying to keep them safe from monsters, why Camp Half-Blood had left me alone for so long after the monsters started coming, how I’d learned I was a mistake as a daughter of Poseidon.</p><p>I relived the moment Chiron told me about my origins. I remembered my thoughts of loathing towards him, towards Camp Half-Blood, towards my father, towards the world. ‘<em> What have they ever done for you but reject you? </em>’</p><p>I remembered my old neighbor, Mrs. Stevenson, a demigod who had died of old age, but who had given me a dagger-necklace that had probably been the only reason I’d survived the early days. I was taken back to the day she’d died, recalling my thoughts that day. She was 92 years old. ‘<em> It’s a privilege for a demigod to die of old age, and at </em> this <em> age. </em>’</p><p>But I was angry. She was the only one who understood, my first ally in this chaotic and unfair world I’d been born in. She knew what it meant to be alone for a long, long time, to have rejected Camp Half-Blood and survived on her own. She did not tell me her divine relation, but she implied that it no longer mattered to her. She was her own person. The one who could teach me how to live my life proudly was slipping away, and I had no choice but to smile and tell her I was happy for her.</p><p>I flashed to memories of dying, seeing Veon above me with his lance raised with the intent to kill. I remembered being stabbed, the shock, the cold, the screaming of Hades, and the deaths that warped my perception of reality as I saw death after death. I remembered staring up at Tartarus, telling myself that dying didn’t mean anything, that I just needed to buy time. I remember being the last one left, the terror pooling in my stomach as I waited for an inevitable end. The destruction of the world loomed, and I was nothing but a side character set to die.</p><p>Nico di Angelo had warned us: the House of Hades would stir our worst memories, make us see things and hear things from the past. Our ghosts would become restless.</p><p>Now we were climbing to the ruins of a palace where an army of ghosts had gathered.</p><p>“Hey, it’ll be fine,” Emily said. She was reassuring Jason quietly. “She won’t be there.” She took his trembling hand and sent waves of relaxation through him. I could feel the calming aura through the air, even though Emily didn’t intend to send things to anyone but Jason.</p><p>“Almost there,” Annabeth announced. “Look-”</p><p><em> BOOM! </em> The hillside rumbled. Somewhere over the ridge, a crowd roared in approval, like spectators in a coliseum. The sound made my skin crawl. Not long ago, we’d fought for our lives in the Roman Colosseum before a cheering ghostly audience. I wasn’t anxious to repeat the experience.</p><p>“Boom!” Kaze exclaimed, throwing his hands up in excitement. He did not seem to share my sentiment.</p><p>“What was that explosion?” Jason wondered.</p><p>“Don’t know,” Piper said. “But it sounds like they’re having fun. Let’s go make some dead friends.”</p>
<hr/><p>Naturally, the situation was worse than I expected. It wouldn’t have been fun otherwise.</p><p>Peering through the olive bushes at the top of the rise, we saw what looked like an out-of-control zombie frat party. The ruins themselves weren’t that impressive: a few stone walls, a weed-choked central courtyard, a dead-end stairwell chiseled into the rock. Some plywood sheets covered a pit and a metal scaffold supported a cracked archway.</p><p>But superimposed over the ruins was another layer of reality - a spectral mirage of the palace as it must have appeared in its heyday. Whitewashed stucco walls lined with balconies rose three stories high. Columned porticoes faced the central atrium, which had a huge fountain and bronze braziers. At a dozen banquet tables, ghouls laughed and ate and pushed one another around.</p><p>I had prepared for a minimum of around 100 spirits, but twice that many were milling about, chasing spectral serving girls, smashing plates and cups, and basically making a nuisance of themselves. Most looked like Lares from Camp Jupiter - transparent purple wraiths in tunics and sandals. A few revelers had decayed bodies with gray flesh, matted clumps of hair, and nasty wounds. Others seemed to be regular living mortals - some in togas, some in modern business suits or army fatigues. I even spotted one guy in a Camp Jupiter T-shirt and Roman legionnaire armor.</p><p>In the center of the atrium, a gray-skinned ghoul in a tattered Greek tunic paraded through the crowd, holding a marble bust over his head like a sports trophy. The other ghosts cheered and slapped him on the back. As the ghoul got closer, I noticed that he had an arrow in his throat, the feathered shaft sprouting from his Adam’s apple. Even more disturbing: the bust he was holding…was that Zeus? It was hard to be sure. Most Greek god statues looked similar. But the bearded, glowering face reminded me very much of the giant Hippie Zeus in Cabin One at Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>“Our next offering!” the ghoul shouted, his voice buzzing from the arrow in his throat. “Let us feed the Earth Mother!”</p><p>The partyers yelled and pounded their cups. The ghoul made his way to the central fountain. The crowd parted, and I realized the fountain wasn’t filled with water. From the three-foot-tall pedestal, a geyser of sand spewed upwards, arcing into an umbrella-shaped curtain of white particles before spilling into the circular basin. The ghoul heaved the marble bust into the fountain. As soon as Zeus’s head passed through the shower of sand, the marble disintegrated like it was going through a wood chipper. The sand glittered gold, the color of ichor - goldy blood. Then the entire mountain rumbled with a muffled <em> BOOM </em>, as if belching after a meal. The dead partygoers roared with approval.</p><p>“Any more statues?” the ghoul shouted to the crowd.</p><p>“Here!”</p><p>I jumped, realizing it was <em> Kaze </em> who had spoken. He’d somehow appeared in the crowd with another bust (obviously a result of his speed), and he’d made a bust of another god that I didn’t initially recognize on the spot. Either way, the bust didn’t last long, because Kaze joined the crowd in cheering as he chucked it into the fountain which disintegrated the same way as the first. Kaze pumped his fist and stomped with a large dramatic flare as the mountain went <em> BOOM! </em> Kaze shouted “ <em> Boom! </em>” along with the mountain’s rumble.</p><p>The ghoul who’d tossed the first bust slapped Kaze (disguised as an older man, but far from out of shape apparently, since he still looked healthy enough to be running around freely and lifting heavy things) on the back and wrapped an arm over Kaze’s shoulders, speaking to him as the crowd cheered. The ghoul and Kaze both raised another cheer in the crowd, pumping fists into the air.</p><p>“Gaining their trust,” Annabeth muttered. “Well, that’s <em> one </em> way to blend in.”</p><p>“I think that was a bust of Hermes,” Emily said with a small sigh. “His animosity towards his father isn’t <em> entirely </em> gone. Seemed to work for that weird ritual though.”</p><p>“No more statues, eh? Then I guess we’ll have to wait for some <em> real </em> gods to sacrifice!” the initial ghoul shouted.</p><p>His comrades laughed and applauded as the ghoul plopped himself down at the nearest feast table with Kaze at his side, making lively conversation.</p><p>Jason clenched his walking stick. “That guy just disintegrated my dad. Who does he think he <em> is? </em>”</p><p>“I’m guessing that’s Antinous,” Annabeth said, “one of the suitors’ leaders. If I remember right, it was Odysseus who shot him through the neck with that arrow.”</p><p>“Charming,” I commented.</p><p>Piper winced. “You’d think that would keep a guy down. What about all the others? Why are there so many?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Annabeth admitted. “Newer recruits for Gaea, I guess. Some must’ve come back to life before we closed the Doors of Death. Some are just spirits.”</p><p>“Some are ghouls.” Jason jumped as a voice spoke up beside him. Azrael had appeared, staring down at the ghosts (and Kaze) with disapproval. “The ones with the gaping wounds and the gray skin, like Antinous. They are not easy to kill.”</p><p>“I’ve fought their kind before,” Jason said. He remembered a quest he’d taken for Camp Jupiter years ago in San Bernardino. “They’re strong and fast and intelligent. Also, they eat human flesh.”</p><p>“Fantastic,” Annabeth muttered. “I don’t see any option except to stick to the plan. Split up, infiltrate, find out why they’re here. If things go bad-”</p><p>“We use the backup plan,” Piper finished.</p><p>Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of the backup plan. Before we’d left the ship, Leo had given each of us an emergency flare the size of a birthday candle. Supposedly, if they tossed one in the air, it would shoot upwards in a streak of white phosphorus, alerting the Argo II that the team was in trouble. At that point, we’d have seconds to take cover before the ship’s catapults fired on our position, engulfing the palace in Greek fire and bursts of Celestial bronze shrapnel.</p><p>Not the safest plan, even <em> if </em> Kaze and Azrael might be able to help get us to safety so long as they weren’t occupied) but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing that we could call an airstrike on this noisy mob of dead guys if the situation got dicey. Of course, that was assuming we could get away. <em> And </em> assuming Leo’s doomsday candles didn’t go off by accident - Leo’s inventions sometimes did that - in which case the weather would get much hotter, with a ninety percent chance of fiery apocalypse. Not to mention if we genuinely needed them and they <em> didn’t </em> go off - or even if they just didn’t work properly and didn’t cue the strike if we needed it.</p><p>“Be careful down there,” Jason warned.</p><p>“Ditto,” I said.</p><p>Piper and Emily crept around the left side of the ridge. Annabeth and I went to the right. Azrael jumped up and disappeared into the Veil. Jason pulled himself up with his walking stick and hobbled towards the ruins.</p>
<hr/><p>First Person: Kaze</p><p>I flashed back to the last time I’d plunged into a mob of evil spirits, in the House of Hades. Well, Azrael had made him miss out on that misadventure (I still wanted to kill him for that stunt, but I tolerated him because he was adorable). If it hadn’t been for Frank Zhang and Nico di Angelo…</p><p>Over the past few days, I knew that Jason sacrificed a portion of a meal to Jupiter, he prayed to his dad to help Nico. I wasn’t sure the gods were in any position to help, but even so, the sentiment was there. That kid had gone through so much, and yet he had volunteered for the most difficult job: transporting the Athena Parthenos statue to Camp Half-Blood. If he didn’t succeed, the Roman and Greek demigods would slaughter each other. Then, no matter what happened in Greece, the Argo II would have no home to return to. At least Ane was with him. I hoped she was okay. I knew that Ane could probably handle herself, but even so, that didn’t change the fact that I got anxiety wondering if she was okay. She reminded me of my sister, but she was younger and more vulnerable. For so long, Onesan had protected me. I wanted to protect her, so I suppose that was why I was intent on making sure she was well-prepared for the trip. She was going to be doing all the work protecting Nico, after all.</p><p>As Jason passed through the palace’s ghostly gateway, I sent a gust of wind to warn him. A section of the mosaic floor in front of him was an illusion covering a ten-foot-deep excavation pit. He sidestepped it and continued into the courtyard.</p><p>The two levels of reality reminded him of the Titan stronghold on Mount Othrys - a disorienting maze of black marble walls that randomly melted into shadow and solidified again. At least during that fight, Jason had had a hundred legionnaires at his side. Now all he had was an old man’s body, a stick, four friends in slinky dresses, and obviously me. I felt the situation was relatively equal.</p><p>Forty feet ahead, Piper moved through the crowd, smiling and filling wine glasses for the ghostly revelers. If she was afraid, she didn’t show it. So far, the ghosts weren’t paying her any special attention. Hazel’s magic must’ve been working. Emily easily fit into the crowd with her Dove of Aphrodite, chatting it up with some of the revelers with a sweet smile while also not drawing any unwanted advances. She was probably getting information, at least. Audrey was floating around acting like a nymph with her water powers and serving wine with a few party tricks for flare. Over on the right, Annabeth collected empty plates and goblets. <em> She </em> wasn’t smiling.</p><p>I remembered that Percy had stayed aboard to watch for threats from the sea (especially with Audrey going on the quest) but he hadn’t liked the idea of Annabeth going on this expedition without him - especially since it would be the first time they were apart since returning from Tartarus.</p><p>“Annabeth would kill me if I suggested she needed anybody to protect her,” he had said.</p><p>Jason had laughed. “Yeah, she would.”</p><p>“But look after her, okay?”</p><p>Emily had squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll make sure she gets back to you safely.”</p><p>I wondered why Annabeth had volunteered for this mission. She could’ve very well stayed behind, but she insisted that she go. I doubted it was an issue with Percy. It seemed more like she was trying to prove to herself that she could manage a mission without Percy constantly by her side. She was trying to rush her recovery. It made me slightly sad.</p><p>I remembered the trauma of my death and being pulled back from the endless years in Asophdel by Gaea. I had pushed away the memories, pretended that they didn’t exist. It worked for a while. But if I thought about my feelings, my past, I could just start crying and I wouldn’t be able to stop. Transforming into a soul-less reanimation or whatever had certainly helped, but it had also felt empty. I hadn’t conquered my feelings, I’d only forcefully pushed them away.</p><p>“IROS!” I was jolted out of my thoughts, realizing that Antinous had redirected his attention directly to Jason at the edge of the crowd. “Is that you, you old beggar?”</p><p>It seems Hazel’s magic had done its work. I could feel the cool air rippling across Jason’s face as the Mist subtly altered his appearance, showing the suitors what they expected to see.</p><p>“That’s me!” Jason called. “Iros!”</p><p>A dozen more ghosts turned toward him. Some scowled and gripped the hilts of their glowing purple swords. Too late, Jason wondered if Iros was an enemy of theirs, but he’d already committed to the part.</p><p>He hobbled forward, putting on his best cranky old man expression. “Guess I’m late to the party. I hope you saved me some food?”</p><p>One of the ghosts sneered in disgust. “Ungrateful old panhandler. Should I kill him, Antinous?”</p><p>I could feel Jason’s muscles tighten.</p><p>“Aw, come on!” I said, mimicking the accents of the men. It was so fun to do accents, honestly. “The beggar made it back from the dead, didn’t he? At least give him a <em> drink </em> if you’re gonna kill him again.”</p><p>Antinous regarded Jason for a three count, then chuckled. “I’m in a good mood today. Come, Iros, join me at my table.”</p><p>Jason didn’t have much choice. I winked at him, but he didn’t seem that much reassured. He sat across from Antinous while more ghosts crowded around, leering as if they expected to see a particularly vicious arm-wrestling contest.</p><p>Up close, Antinous’s eyes were solid yellow. His lips stretched paper-thin over wolfish teeth. At first, Jason thought the ghoul’s curly dark hair was disintegrating. Then he realized a steady stream of dirt was tricking from Antinous’s scalp, spilling over his shoulders. Clods of mud filled the old sword gashes in the ghoul’s gray skin. More dirt spilled from the base of the arrow wound in his throat. The power of Gaea was holding him together.</p><p>Antinous slid a golden goblet and a platter of food across the table. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Iros. But I suppose even a beggar can sue for retribution. Drink. Eat.”</p><p>Think red liquid sloshed in the goblet. On the plate sat a steaming brown lump of mystery meat. Jason’s stomach was clearly rebelling. Even if ghoul food didn’t kill him, his vegetarian girlfriend probably wouldn’t kiss him for a month.</p><p>Notus, the South Wind, had told him: ‘<em> A wind that blows aimlessly is no good to anyone. </em>’ Jason’s entire career at Camp Jupiter had been built on careful choices. He mediated between demigods, listened to all sides of an argument, found compromises. Even when he chafed against Roman traditions, he thought before he acted. He wasn’t impulsive. Notus had warned him that such hesitation would kill him. Jason had to stop deliberating and take what he wanted.</p><p>If he was an ungrateful beggar, he had to <em> act </em> like one.</p><p>He ripped off a chunk of meat with his fingers and stuffed it in his mouth. He guzzled some red liquid, which thankfully tasted like watered-down wine, not blood or poison. Jason fought the urge to gag, but he didn’t kneel over or explode.</p><p>”Yum!” He wiped his mouth. “Now tell me about this…what did you call it? Retribution? Where do I sign up?”</p><p>The ghosts laughed. I laughed along with them, but I knew that Jason was in trouble at this rate. One pushed Jason’s shoulder and he was alarmed that he could actually <em> feel </em> it. At Camp Jupiter, Lares had no physical substance. Apparently, these spirits <em> did </em> - which meant more enemies who could beat, stab, or decapitate him.</p><p>Antinous leaned forward. “Tell me, Iros, what do you have to offer? We don’t need you to run messages for us like in the old days. Certainly you aren’t a fighter. As I recall, Odysseus crushed your jaw and tossed you into the pigsty.”</p><p>Iros…the old man who’d run messages for the suitors in exchange for scraps of food. I had been called an Iros before back when I had gone to cities trying to work to get money for presents for my sister. I'd no idea it was an insult until I’d read all the books in my sister’s library on the Argo II out of boredom and had recognized the name in one of the books. Iros had been sort of like their pet homeless person. When Odysseus came home, disguised as a beggar, Iros thought the new guy was moving in on his territory. The two had started arguing…</p><p>“You <em> made </em> Iros fight Odysseus,” I pointed out. “You bet money on it.”</p><p>“Even when Odysseus took off his shirt and you saw how muscular he was…you <em> still </em> made me fight him!” Jason caught on. I assumed he had remembered who Iros was, being a leader guy and well-read. “You didn’t care if I lived or died!”</p><p>Antinous bared his pointed teeth. “Of course I didn’t care. I still don’t! But you’re here, so Gaea must have had a reason to allow you back into the mortal world. Tell me, why are you worthy of a share in our spoils?”</p><p>“What spoils?” Jason asked.</p><p>Antinous spread his hands. “The entire world, my friend. The first time we met here, we were only after Odysseus’s land, his money, and his wife.”</p><p>“Especially his wife!” A bald ghost in ragged clothes elbowed Jason in the ribs. “That Penelope was a hot little honey cake!”</p><p>I caught a glimpse of Piper serving drinks at the next table. She discreetly put her finger to her mouth in a ‘<em> gag me </em>’ gesture, then went back to flirting with dead guys.</p><p>Antinous sneered. “Eurymachus, you whining coward. You never stood a <em> chance </em> with Penelope. I remember you blubbering and pleading for your life with Odysseus, blaming everything on me!”</p><p>“Lot of good it did me.” Eurymachus lifted his tattered shirt, revealing an inch-wide spectral hole in the middle of his chest. “Odysseus shot me in the heart, just because I wanted to marry his wife!”</p><p>“How rude of him,” I muttered, sipping some of the wine in my cup.</p><p>“At any rate…” Antinous turned to Jason. “We have gathered now for a much bigger prize. Once Gaea destroys the gods, we will divide up the remnants of the mortal world!”</p><p>“Dibs on London!” yelled a ghoul at the next table.</p><p>“Montreal!” shouted another.</p><p>“Japan!” I volunteered.</p><p>“Duluth!” another ghost yelled, which momentarily stopped the conversation as the other ghosts gave him confused looks.</p><p>Jason looked like the food was getting to him. “What about the rest of these…guests? I count at least two hundred. Half of them are new to me.”</p><p>Antinous’s yellow eyes gleamed. “All of them are suitors for Gaea’s favor. All have claims and grievances against the gods or their pet heroes. That scoundrel over there is Hippias, former tyrant of Athens. He got deposed and sided with the Persians to attack his own countrymen. No morals whatsoever. He’d do anything for power.”</p><p>“Thank you!” Hippias called.</p><p>“That rogue with the turkey leg in his mouth,” Antinous continued, “that’s Hasdrubal of Carthage. He has a grudge to settle with Rome.”</p><p>“Mhhmm,” said the Carthaginian.</p><p>“And Michael Varus-”</p><p>Jason choked. “<em> Who? </em>”</p><p>I glanced over by the sand fountain, where the dark-haired guy in the purple shirt and legionnaire armor turned to face us. His outline was blurred, smoky, and indistinct, so I guessed he was some form of spirit, but the legion tattoo on his forearm was clear enough: <b>SPQR</b>, the double-faced head of the god Janus, and six score marks for years of service. On his breastplate hung the badge of praetorship and the emblem of the Fifth Cohort.</p><p>Jason had never met Michael Varus, but I’d heard a story that the infamous praetor had died in the 1980s, losing the legion eagle in Alaska - the one Percy and the others had recovered. Varus was staring at Jason, and his sunken eyes seemed to bore right through Jason’s disguise.</p><p>Antinous waved dismissively. “He’s a Roman demigod. Lost his legion’s eagle in…Alaska, was it? Doesn’t matter. Gaea lets him hang around. He insists he has some insight into defeating Camp Jupiter. But you, Iros - you still haven’t answered my question. Why should <em> you </em> be welcome among us?”</p><p>Varus’s dead eyes had unnerved Jason. The Mist was thinning around him, reacting to his uncertainty.</p><p>Suddenly Annabeth appeared at Antinous’s shoulder. “More wine, my lord?” I flicked my finger. “Oops!”</p><p>A gust of wind blew the contents of her silver pitcher right down the back of Antinous’s neck.</p><p>“Gah!” The ghoul arched his spine. “Foolish girl! Who let you back from Tartarus?!”</p><p>“A Titan, my lord.” Annabeth dipped her head apologetically. “May I bring you some moist towelettes? Your arrow is dripping.”</p><p>“Begone!”</p><p>Annabeth caught Jason’s eye - a silent message of support - then she disappeared in the crowd. I took a deep breath and whispered a message into the wind, wrapping it around the other guests and making it over to Jason to tickle a message into his ear.</p><p>“<em> Messenger. The House of Hades… </em>”</p><p>The ghoul was wiping himself off, giving Jason a chance to collect his thoughts. He was Iros, former messenger of the suitors. Why would he be here? Why should they accept him?</p><p>He picked up the nearest steak knife and stabbed it into the table, making the ghosts around him jump. “Why should you welcome me?” Jason growled. “Because I’m still running messages, you stupid wretches! I’ve just come from the House of Hades to see what you’re up to!”</p><p>The last part was true at least, and it seemed to give Antinous pause. The ghoul glared at him, wine still dripping from the arrow shaft in his throat. “You expect me to believe Gaea sent you - a beggar - to check up on us?”</p><p>Jason laughed. “I was among the last to leave Epirus before the Doors of Death were closed! I saw the chamber where Clytius stood guard under a domed ceiling tiled with tombstones. I walked the jewel-and-bone floors of the Necromanteion!”</p><p>That was also true. Around the table, ghosts shifted and muttered.</p><p>“So, Antinous…” Jason jabbed a finger at the ghoul. “Maybe <em> you </em> should explain to me why <em> you’re </em>worthy of Gaea’s favor. All I see is a crowd of lazy, dawdling dead folks enjoying themselves and not helping the war effort. What should I tell the Earth Mother?”</p><p>I saw Piper flash him an approving smile. Then she returned her attention to a glowing purple Greek dude who was trying to make her sit on his lap. I blew a breeze, toppling another suitor into him and knocking him out of his seat. <em> That </em> easily began a fight that Piper could slip away from.</p><p>Antinous wrapped his hand around the steak knife Jason had impaled in the table. He pulled it free and studied the blade. “If you come from Gaea, you must know we are here under orders. Porphyrion decreed it.” Antinous ran the knife blade across his palm. Instead of blood, dry dirt spilled from the cut. “You do know Porphyrion…?”</p><p>Jason struggled to keep his nausea under control. He remembered Porphyrion just fine from their battle at the Wolf House. “The giant king - green skin, forty feet tall, white eyes, hair braided with weapons. Of course I know him. He’s a lot more impressive than <em> you </em>.”</p><p>He wisely didn’t mention that the last time he’d seen the giant king, Jason had blasted him in the head with lightning. He’d apparently split a mountain in the process. Ah, good times.</p><p>For once, Antinous looked speechless, but his bald ghost friend Eurymachus put an arm around Jason’s shoulders. “Now, now, friend!” Eurymachus smelled like sour wine and burning electrical wires. His ghostly touch made Jason’s rib cage tingle. “I’m sure we didn’t mean to question your credentials! It’s just, well, if you’ve spoken with Porphyrion in Athens, you <em> know </em> why we’re here. I assure you, we’re doing exactly as he ordered.”</p><p>Prophyrion was in Athens…Gaea had promised to pull up the gods by their roots. Chiron, the mentor at Camp Half-Blood, had assumed that meant that the giants would try to rouse the earth goddess at the original Mount Olympus, but-</p><p>“The Acropolis,” Jason said. “The most ancient temples to the gods, in the middle of Athens. That’s where Gaea will wake.”</p><p>“Of course!” Eurymachus laughed. The wound in his chest made a popping sound, like a porpoise’s blowhole. “And to get there, those meddlesome demigods will have to travel by sea, eh? They knew it’s too dangerous to fly over land.”</p><p>“Which means they’ll have to pass this island,” I said, acting smug as I swirled wine in a goblet. It was a very nice goblet. Big, shiny, practical…it was mine now.</p><p>Eurymachus nodded eagerly. He removed his arm from Jason’s shoulders and dipped his finger in his wineglass. “At that point, they’ll have to make a choice, eh?”</p><p>On the tabletop, he traced a coastline, red wine glowing unnaturally against the wood. He drew Greece like a misshapen hourglass - a large dangly blob for the northern mainland, then another blob below it, almost as large - the big chunk of land known as the Peloponnese. Cutting between them was a narrow line of sea - the Straits of Corinth. We hardly needed a picture. Us and the rest of the crew had spent the last day at sea studying maps.</p><p>“The most direct route,” Eurymachus said, “would be due east from here, across the Straights of Corinth, but if they try to go that way-”</p><p>“Enough,” Antinous snapped. “You have a loose tongue, Eurymachus.”</p><p>The ghost looked offended. “I wasn’t going to tell him everything! Just about the Cyclopes armies massed on either shore. And the raging storm spirits in the air. And those vicious sea monsters Keto sent to infest the waters. And of course if the ship got as far as Delphi-”</p><p>“Idiot!” Antinous lunged across the table and grabbed the ghost’s wrist. A thin crust of dirt spread from the ghoul’s hand, straight up Eurymachus’s spectral arm.</p><p>“No!” Eurymachus yelped. “Please! I-I only meant-”</p><p>The ghost screamed as the dirt covered his body like a shell, then cracked apart, leaving nothing but a pile of dust. Eurymachus was gone. Antinous sat back and brushed off his hands. The other suitors at the table watched him in wary silence.</p><p>“Apologies, Iros.” The ghoul smiled coldly. “All you need to know - the ways to Athens are well guarded, just as we promised. The demigods would either have to risk the straits, which are impossible, or sail around the entire Peloponnese, which is hardly much safer. In any event, it’s unlikely they will survive long enough to <em> make </em> that choice. Once they reach Ithaca, we will know. We will stop them here, and Gaea will see how valuable we are. You can take that message back to Athens.”</p><p>Jason was clearly spooked by Antinous’s stunt. He’d never seen anything like the shell of earth that Antinous had summoned to destroy Eurymachus. He didn’t want to find out if that power worked on demigods. Also, Antinous sounded confident that he could detect the Argo II. Hazel and Veon’s magic seemed to be obscuring the ship so far, but there was no telling how long that would last. I wasn’t sure if Onesan’s deities would be impossible to hide or if they’d be useful and help with the cloaking.</p><p>At least we had the information we’d come for. Our goal was Athens. The safer route, or at least the <em> not impossible </em> route, was around the southern coast. Today was July 20th. We only had twelve days before Gaea planned to wake, on August 1, the ancient Feast of Hope. We should really leave while we had the chance. But then there was Delphi. It wouldn’t hurt to visit the ancient site of Apollo’s Oracle, maybe get a little useful insight into our personal futures, but if the place had been overrun by monsters…</p><p>Jason pushed aside his plate of cold food. “Sounds like everything is under control. For your sake, Antinous, I hope so. These demigods are resourceful. They closed the Doors of Death. We wouldn’t want them sneaking past you, perhaps getting help from Delphi.”</p><p>Antinous chuckled. “No risk of that. Delphi is no longer in Apollo’s control.”</p><p>“I - I see. And if the demigods sail the long way around the Peloponnese?”</p><p>“You worry too much. That journey is <em> never </em> safe for demigods, and it’s much too far. Besides, Victory runs rampant in Olympia. As long as that’s the case, there is no way the demigods can win this war.”</p><p>My eyes narrowed in thought, but I nodded. “See? This place is properly fortified. Now off you go, Iros. There’s nothing to worry about.” I waved. “Get outta here. I think you just spoiled Antinous’s mood.”</p><p>Jason nodded. “Very well. I will report as much to King Porphyrion. Thank you for the, er, meal.”</p><p>Over at the fountain, Michael Varus called, “Wait.”</p><p>Jason bit back a curse. I glared over at the ghost. Dammit. We’d been trying to ignore the dead praetor, but now Varus walked over, surrounded in a hazy white aura, his deep-set eyes like sinkholes. At his side hung an Imperial gold gladius.</p><p>“You must stay,” Varus said.</p><p>Antinous shot the ghost an irritated look. “What’s the problem, legionnaire? If Iros wants to leave, let him. He smells bad!”</p><p>The other ghosts laughed nervously. Across the courtyard, Piper shot Jason a worried glance. A little farther away, Annabeth casually palmed a carving knife from the nearest platter of meat. Audrey had a tray full of wine. I’d lost track of where Emily was.</p><p>Varus rested his hand on the pommel of his sword. Despite the heat, his breastplate was glazed with ice. “I lost my cohort <em> twice </em> in Alaska - once in life, once in death to a Graecus named Percy Jackson. Still I have come here to answer Gaea’s call. Do you know why?”</p><p>Jason swallowed. “Stubbornness?”</p><p>“This is a place of longing,” Varus said. “All of us are drawn here, sustained not only by Gaea’s power, but also by our strongest desires. Eurymachus’s greed. Antinous’s cruelty.”</p><p>“You flatter me,” the ghoul muttered.</p><p>“Hasdrubal’s hatred,” Varus continued. “Hippias’s bitterness. Yamasatchie’s rage. My ambition.”</p><p>I gripped my goblet. Varus knew who <em> I </em> was, but because I truly <em> was </em> brought back by Gaea for a purpose, he listed me off as not a threat. <em> My rage </em> . Yes, my rage. My pain and confusion led to despair. My despair led to rage. I had love and laughs, but oh yes, I had <em> rage </em> . For a creature, a reanimation, that had been born with no passion from a missing or suppressed soul, a single feeling, a desire was locked into my very bones that breathed life into me. <em> Yamasatchie </em>.</p><p>“And you, <em> Iros </em>. What has drawn you here? What does a beggar most desire? Perhaps a home?”</p><p>An uncomfortable tingle started at the base of Jason’s skull - the same feeling he got when a huge electrical storm was about to break.</p><p>“I should be going,” he said. “Messages to carry.”</p><p>Michael Varus drew his sword. “My father is Janus, the god of two faces. I am used to seeing through masks and deceptions. Do you know, Iros, why we are so sure the demigods will not pass our island undetected?”</p><p>I could almost hear the repertoire of Latin cuss words running through Jason’s head. He tried to calculate how long it would take him to get out his emergency flare and fire it. Hopefully he could buy enough time for the girls to find shelter before this mob of dead guys slaughtered him. They needed milliseconds with me around, but would even milliseconds be enough?</p><p>Jason turned to Antinous. “Look, are you in charge here or not? Maybe you should muzzle your Roman.”</p><p>The ghoul took a deep breath. The arrow rattled in his throat. “Ah, but this might be entertaining. Go on, Varus.”</p><p>The dead praetor raised his sword. “Our desires reveal us. They show us for who we really are. Someone has come for you, Jason Grace.”</p><p>Behind Varus, the crowd parted. The shimmering ghost of a woman drifted forward, and Jason felt as if his bones were turning to dust.</p><p>“My dearest,” said his mother’s ghost. “You have come home.”</p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Desires and Intruders</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for so many reviews!</p><p>Arienne: I'm so amazed that you've read the whole thing - and for over four months! Wow! I get it, I do the same thing, reading everything that's available before I make a comment unless I find something cute or funny that I just have to comment on right then and there. I don't mind a lot of comments, especially if you're ranting. I rant all the time in comments, but they end up in one just block of text of a comment ;) Good to know there are others out there. And yeah, the ending of BoO felt disappointing compared to the Titan war. While I love angst as much as the next author, I only have a couple of deaths in mind, and if you pay attention to my stories, I do all I can to avoid changing major plot points in someone else's story unless it can be reversed or otherwise changed minimally to still have the same effect. Creating a failed timeline and then a separate story is something that I'd only do as a side project rather than the real thing since this series is long enough as it is *awkward laughter*. I will certainly be making a lot more happen during the final battles though. I've been planning this for YEARS after all, and now that we're closing in, I have a better idea of all the things I want to happen, including making both the giants and Gaea harder to defeat than usual and adding in some extra challenges. The overall effect follows the main story, but the point of my writing is to fix and retell a story to remedy plot holes and things that upset me. Feel free to tell me things that upset you; I go into this expecting readers have at least skimmed the original books before they read it.</p><p>WhoopL: That does sound like a good idea (honestly, I hadn't even thought of it) but there are so many nuanced important plot points that I don't think I could manage to pick out all the important ones and shove them into a single document that properly explains everything, and overall just knowing the plots of the books is enough backstory to get by. I try to insert explanations as they become relevant - not sure if I did it in previous stories, but I do try - but entire backstories and such are scattered about my stories in random places as I developed a tale. In this chapter I give some backfill that came from the first entry in this series, and some from the third entry and the fourth. I don't remember where the information that's relevant comes from a lot of the time, and I don't know when it will be relevant either. What if I give history on someone and then expect a reader to have remembered it from a wall of text? It's easier to just explain things in the moment as they come.</p><p>teh immortal: Thanks!</p><p>I'll be responding to reviews in each chapter, regardless of whether you are a guest or a logged-in user. Some people give PMs, but I like to shout out to people and let anyone read the hints and plans I have. I'm also on Archive of Our Own, so I post the responses to reviews there as well and that might confuse people…eh, I'll deal with it if it ever becomes a problem.</p><p>Can I say that this intro to the book felt a bit long-winded? It felt long-winded.</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>First Person: Azrael</p><p>One flare and I could pull them out with plenty of time. But the Veil was being disturbed.</p><p>Impossible. None of the ghosts had power over the Veil; if anything they'd be put at a <em>disadvantage</em> if they tried interacting with it.</p><p>"Who-?"</p><p>"Shhhh, little one." A hand clasped over my mouth. "Just watch."</p><p>She was dressed in a flowery green-and-red wraparound, like the skirt of a Christmas tree, with colorful plastic bangles on her wrists. Her hair was an over-teased corona of dyed blonde curls, and her scent of lemons and aerosol. Her eyes were blue, like Jason's, but they gleamed with fractured light, like she'd just come out of a bunker after a nuclear war - hungrily searching for familiar details in a changed world.</p><p>"Dearest." She held out her arms.</p><p>Jason was mesmerized. The ghosts and ghouls no longer mattered as his vision tunneled to only his mother. His Mist disguise burned off. His posture straightened, his joints stopped aching, his walking stick turned back into an Imperial gold gladius. The burning sensation of the dissolving Mist didn't stop. He felt as if layers of his life were being seared away - his months as Camp Half-Blood, his years at Camp Jupiter, his training with Lupa the wolf goddess. He was a scared and vulnerable two-year-old again. Even the scar on his lip, from when he'd tried to eat a stapler as a toddler, stung like a fresh wound.</p><p>"Aw, look at what parents can do to people," a voice crooned in my ear. I saw a flash of white hair to my right, but I couldn't see my captor. I couldn't feel the Veil anymore. "Was it like that with you? Finding the parents that had abandoned you to the Wards? I wouldn't know what that's like. I never <em>had</em> parents. But you know how Freebies are."</p><p>I couldn't help my widening eyes. This person was from the Wards. 'Freebee' was the term used in the Wards to describe a subject that had come from the outside world before they were brought to the Wards. It was around a 60/40 split between Freebies and Lab Kids (LKs) - those born straight into the Ward program either in a test tube or simply being born there naturally before they had any chance to see freedom. Freebies had lives before they were brought to the Wards, they were much more unpredictable. I was considered a Freebee.</p><p>"Mom?" Jason managed.</p><p>"Yes, dearest." Her image flickered. "Come, embrace me."</p><p>"You're…you're not real."</p><p>"Of course she is real." Michael Varus's voice sounded far away. "Did you think Gaea would let such an important spirit languish in the Underworld? She is your mother, Beryl Grace, star of television, sweetheart to the king of Olympus, who rejected her not once but twice, in both his Greek and Roman aspects. She deserves justice as much as any of us."</p><p>The suitors crowded around Jason, watching. He was their entertainment, and he knew it. So long as they were entertained, Jason had time. The ghosts probably found this even more amusing than two beggars fighting to the death.</p><p>Piper's voice cut through the buzzing in his head. "Jason, look at me." She stood twenty feet away, holding her ceramic amphora. Her smile was gone. Her gaze was fierce and commanding - as impossible to ignore as the blue harpy feather in her hair. "That isn't your mother. Her voice is working some kind of magic on you - like charmspeak, but more dangerous. Can't you sense it?"</p><p>"She's right." Annabeth climbed onto the nearest table. She kicked aside a platter, startling a dozen suitors. "Jason, that's only a remnant of your mother, like an ara, maybe, or-"</p><p>"A remnant!" His mother's ghost sobbed. "Yes, look what I have been reduced to. It's Jupiter's fault. He abandoned us. He wouldn't help me! I didn't want to leave you in Sonoma, my dear, but Juno and Jupiter gave me no choice. They wouldn't allow us to stay together. Why fight for them now? Join these suitors. Lead them. We can be a family again!"</p><p>I heard a giggle at my ear. "An insane woman, so entitled, so delusional. Let's see if her son is the same."</p><p>This had been the story of Jason's life. Everyone had always watched him, expecting him to lead the way. From the moment he'd arrived at Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigods had treated him like a prince in waiting. Despite his attempts to alter his destiny - joining the worst cohort, trying to change the camp traditions, taking the least glamorous missions, and befriending the least popular kids - he had been made praetor anyway. As a son of Jupiter, his future had been assured.</p><p>Hercules had said to him at the Straits of Gibraltar: '<em>It's not easy being a son of Zeus. Too much pressure. Eventually, it can make a guy snap.</em>'</p><p>Now Jason was here, drawn taut as a bowstring.</p><p>"You left me," he told his mother. "That wasn't Jupiter or Juno. That was <em>you</em>."</p><p>Beryl Grace stepped forward. The worry lines around her eyes, the pained tightness in her mouth reminded Jason of his sister, Thalia. "Dearest, I told you I would come back. Those were my last words to you. Don't you remember?"</p><p>Jason shivered. In the ruins of the Wolf House his mother had hugged him one last time. She had smiled, but her eyes were full of tears. '<em>It's all right</em>,' she had promised. But even as a little kid, Jason had known it wasn't all right. '<em>Wait here. I will be back for you, dearest. I will see you soon.</em>'</p><p>She hadn't come back. Instead, Jason had wandered the ruins, crying and alone, calling for his mother and for Thalia - until the wolves came for him. His mother's unkept promise was at the core of who he was. He'd built his whole life around the irritation of her words, like the grain of sand at the center of a pearl.</p><p><em>People lie. Promises are broken</em>.</p><p>That was why, as much as it chafed him, Jason followed rules. He kept his promises. He never wanted to abandon anyone the way he'd been abandoned and lied to. Now his mom was back, erasing the one certainty Jason had about her - that she'd left him forever.</p><p>Across the table, Antinous raised his goblet. "So pleased to meet you, son of Jupiter. Listen to your mother. You have many grievances against the gods. Why not join us? I gather these two serving girls are your friends? We will spare them." Emily and Audrey had wisely not revealed themselves. I couldn't even find Emily, but Audrey was standing still as she could in the crowd. Snakes of wine and water were forming around her subtly. "You wish to have your mother remain in the world? We can do that. You wish to be a king-"</p><p>"She left you to suffer before she returned!" Kaze snapped. "Mothers who tell the truth, who lie, who do both at once! They are not people you should love! They are people you should crush for their arrogance and slaughter for their delusions! And one thing you should <em>never</em> do is expect <em>love</em> from them. They care more about themselves than their children, and if they say they love you, it's because you do something for them, nothing else. Your mother lied, Jason. That's what madwomen do! They return only when they <em>need</em> you, pleading innocence to regain the trust they had abandoned so that they can get what they want. And once they're done, they'll throw you away once more. A god did it to her, she will do it to everyone else in return. Especially her children."</p><p>Antinous reached for Kaze's wrist, but Kaze was faster and moved out of range.</p><p>"You dare to use a madwoman to persuade a sane man?" Kaze's illusion faded away, his sclera bleeding to black and his porcelain face becoming less fleshy and humane. "Madwoman can only fool mad children."</p><p>"Km-mmh!" I struggled against my captor. I was losing my hold on Kaze. He was starting to lose himself in his hatred. His hatred powered his reanimation - hatred for the gods, hatred for his mother. Hatred for himself and the love that drove him to always do things he'd regret.</p><p>Kaze was left open as the other guests regarded him with a wary eye. Kaze Mist disguise shifted him back to his younger appearance, but otherwise he looked as intimidating as ever. As a reanimation of Gaea, he must've been respected and revered by any who had even heard of him. These ghosts and ghouls paled in comparison to Kaze's reborn state because Gaea had poured her very power into him.</p><p>"No." Jason's mind was spinning. "No, I don't belong with you."</p><p>Michael Varus regarded him with cold eyes. "Are you so sure, my fellow praetor? Even if you defeat the giants and Gaea, would you return home like Odysseus did? Where <em>is</em> your home now? With the Greeks? With the Romans? No one will accept you. And <em>if</em> you get back, who's to say you won't find ruins like this?"</p><p>Jason scanned the palace courtyard. Without the illusory balconies and colonnades, there was nothing but a heap of rubble on a barren hilltop. Only the fountain seemed real, spewing forth sand like a reminder of Gaea's limitless power.</p><p>"You were a legion officer," Jason told Varus. "A leader of Rome."</p><p>"So were you," Varus said. "Loyalties change."</p><p>"You think I belong with <em>this</em> crowd? A bunch of dead losers waiting for a free handout from Gaea, whining that the world owes them something?"</p><p>Around the courtyard, ghosts and ghouls rose to their feet and drew weapons.</p><p>"Sit down, you sorry excuses for dead men walking," Kaze hissed.</p><p>Rings of air constricted around the guests, forcing most into seats and others to their knees. Even the serving women were restrained, including Piper, Annabeth, and Audrey. Jason waved up a barrier against Kaze's wind, incidentally saving Varus and Antinous. Beryl Grace was unaffected, and that seemed to provoke a challenge from Kaze.</p><p>"Kmm-eee!" I started to punch and elbow my captor. "Km-EEE!"</p><p>Their grip on me tightened, nearly suffocating me with their hand over my face. "Oh, it seems you've got some bite to your bark. Don't worry, little Death. The puppet will be fine."</p><p>"Kaze! Stop it!" a voice called.</p><p>Audrey reared back her head and a whip of water followed her movements. She threw her head forward, not fast enough for whiplash or anything, but the natural progression of a whip caused the end of the water whip to snap at Kaze with enough force to cut through his arm, whacking him so hard that it genuinely seemed to stun him. She rotated her head around and whipped him again, striking him in the face, causing him to reel back and his wind restraints to dissolve. The ghouls were released from their bonds, retrieving their weapons once more.</p><p>"Beware!" Piper yelled at the crowd. "Every man in this palace is your enemy. Each one will stab you in the back at the first chance!"</p><p>Over the last few weeks, Piper's charmspeak had become truly powerful. She spoke the truth, and the crowd believed her. They looked sideways at one another, hands clenching the hilts of their swords.</p><p>Jason's mother stepped towards him. "Dearest, be sensible. Give up your quest. Your Argo II could never make the trip to Athens. Even if it did, there's the matter of the Athena Parthenos."</p><p>A tremor passed through him. "What do you mean?"</p><p>"Don't feign ignorance, my dearest. Gaea knows about your friend Reyna, and Nico the son of Hades, and the satyr Hedge, and the little monster curse escaped from Tartarus."</p><p>Kaze's eyes snapped open, his rage flashing to panic. "Ane!"</p><p>"To kill them, the Earth Mother has sent her most dangerous son - the hunter who never rests. But you don't have to die."</p><p>The ghouls and ghosts closed in - two hundred of them facing Jason in anticipation, as if he might lead them in the national anthem.</p><p>'<em>The hunter who never rests.</em>' I didn't know who that was, but we had to warn the others. Which meant that we all needed to get out of here alive.</p><p>Jason looked at Annabeth, Piper, and Audrey. He glanced at Kaze, whose appearance remained a reanimation, but he gave a slight nod for Jason's cue.</p><p>Jason forced himself to meet his mother's eyes. She looked like the same woman who'd abandoned him at the Sonoma woods fourteen years ago. But Jason wasn't a toddler anymore. He was a battle veteran, a demigod who'd faced death countless times. And what he saw in front of him wasn't his mother - at least, not what his mother <em>should</em> be - caring, loving, selflessly protective. Beryl Grace was <em>never</em> a mother to him, regardless of whoever and whatever this was before him now.</p><p>'<em>A remnant</em>,' Annabeth had called her.</p><p>Michael Varus had told him that the spirits here were sustained by their strongest desires. The spirit of Beryl Grace literally <em>glowed</em> with need. Her eyes demanded Jason's attention. Her arms reached out, desperate to possess him.</p><p>"What do you want?" he asked. "What brought you here?"</p><p>"I want life!" she cried. "Youth! Beauty! Your father could have made me immortal. He could have taken me to Olympus, but he abandoned me. You can set things right, Jason. You are my proud warrior!" Her lemony scent turned acrid, as if she were starting to burn.</p><p>Jason remembered something Thalia had told him. Their mother had become increasingly unstable, until her despair drove her crazy. She had died in a car accident, the result of her driving while drunk. The watered wine in Jason's stomach churned. He decided that if he lived through this day, he would never drink alcohol again.</p><p>"You're a <em>mania</em>," Jason decided, the word coming to him from his studies at Camp Jupiter long ago. "A spirit of insanity. That's what you've been reduced to."</p><p>"I am all that remains," Beryl Grace agreed. Her image flickered through a spectrum of colors. "Embrace me, son. I am all you have left."</p><p>The memory of the South Wind spoke in his mind: '<em>You cannot control your parentage, but you </em>can<em> choose your legacy</em>.'</p><p>Jason felt like he was being reassembled, one layer at a time. His heartbeat steadied. The chill left his bones. His skin warmed in the afternoon sun.</p><p>"No," he croaked. He glanced at Annabeth, Piper, and Audrey. "My loyalties haven't changed. My family has just expanded. I'm a child of Greece and Rome." He looked back at his mother for the last time. "I'm no child of yours."</p><p>He made the ancient sign of warding off evil - three fingers thrust out from the heart - and the ghost of Beryl Grace disappeared with a soft hiss, like a sigh of relief.</p><p>The ghoul Antinous tossed aside his goblet. He studied Jason with a look of lazy disgust. "Well then," he said, "I suppose we'll just kill you."</p><p>All around Jason, the enemies closed in.</p><p>Jason slashed his gladius in a wide arc, vaporizing the nearest suitors; then he vaulted onto the table and jumped right over Antinous's head. In midair he willed his blade extend into a javelin - a trick he'd never tried with this sword - but somehow he knew it would work. He landed on his feet holding a six-foot-long pilum. As Antinous turned to face him, Jason thrust the Imperial gold point through the ghoul's chest.</p><p>Antinous looked down incredulously. "You-"</p><p>"Enjoy the Fields of Punishment." Jason yanked out his pilum and Antinous crumbled to dirt.</p><p>Jason kept fighting, spinning his javelin - slicing through ghosts, knocking ghouls off their feet. Across the courtyard, Annabeth fought like a demon too. Her dragon-bone sword scythed down any suitors stupid enough to face her.</p><p>Over by the sand fountain, Piper had also drawn her sword - the jagged bronze blade she'd taken from Zethes the Boread. She stabbed and parried with her right hand, occasionally shooting tomatoes from the cornucopia in her left, while yelling at the suitors, "Save yourselves! I'm too dangerous!" That must have been exactly what they wanted to hear, because her opponents kept running away, only to freeze in confusion a few yards downhill, then charge back into the fight.</p><p>Audrey shifted her arms themselves into water tentacles to strike out with more flexibility and mobility, and occasionally she used the nearest goblet of wine to send a wine dagger flying around her. She was a whirlwind of ice shards and water whips for anyone that came her way, but she was nothing compared to the tornado that was Kaze. He was a storm of blades and bombs, throwing the occasional grenade as he passed, slicing down suitors with his speed. Any weapons that managed to hit him bounced off his invincible frame.</p><p>The Greek tyrant Hippias lunged at Piper, his dagger raised, but Piper blasted him point-blank in the chest with a lovely pot roast. He staggered back, but before he could regain his balance, Emily shoved him into the fountain (having seemingly appeared out of nowhere, but in reality everyone had been able to see her, she just blended in and didn't attract attention) and he screamed as he disintegrated.</p><p>An arrow whistled toward Jason's face. He blew it aside with a gust of wind, then cut through a line of sword-wielding ghouls and noticed a dozen suitors regrouping by the fountain to charge Annabeth. He lifted his javelin to the sky. A bolt of lightning ricocheted off the point and blasted the ghosts to ions, leaving a smoking crater where the earthen fountain had been. Over the last few months, Jason had fought many battles, but he'd forgotten what it was like to feel <em>good</em> in combat. Of course he was still afraid, but a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. For the first time since waking up in Arizona with his memories erased, Jason felt <em>whole</em>. He knew who he was. He had chosen his family, and it had nothing to do with Beryl Grace or even Jupiter. His family included all the demigods who fought at his side, Roman and Greek, new friends and old. He wasn't going to let anyone break his family apart.</p><p>He summoned the winds and tossed three ghouls off the side of the hill like rag dolls. He skewered a fourth, then willed his javelin to shrink back to a sword and hacked through another group of spirits. Soon no more enemies faced him. The remaining ghosts began to disappear on their own, but I realized they were being pulled into the Veil by my captor, restrained by their power, not mine. Annabeth cut down Hasdrubal the Carthaginian, and Jason made the mistake of sheathing his sword.</p><p>I finally ripped the hand off my mouth. "Jason!"</p><p>Pain flared in his lower back - so sharp and cold he thought Khione the snow goddess had touched him.</p><p>Next to his ear, Michael Varus snarled, "Born a Roman, die a Roman."</p><p>Jason fell to his knees. Piper screamed. She charged towards them. Her sword passed over Jason and cut through Michael Varus's armor with a metallic <em>ka-chunk</em>. Emily drew her dagger and stabbed the Roman in the neck where his armor ended. Varus exploded into dust, blown away by Kaze as he rushed over as well. An empty legionnaire's helmet rolled across the stones. The evil demigod was gone - but he had made a lasting impression.</p><p>"Jason!" Piper grabbed his shoulders as he began to fall sideways. Jason gasped as Kaze pulled the sword out of his back. Piper lowered him to the ground, propping his head against a stone.</p><p>Annabeth ran to their side. She had a nasty cut on the side of her neck. "Gods." Annabeth stared at the wound in Jason's gut. "Oh gods."</p><p>"Thanks," Jason groaned. "I was afraid it might be bad."</p><p>"Here." Emily knelt opposite of Piper at Jason's side. "Just stay calm, all right? It's gonna be fine."</p><p>She was surprisingly calm, but her demeanor was welcome at keeping the rest of them calm.</p><p>Jason's arms and legs started to tingle as his body went into crisis mode, sending all the blood to his chest. The pain was dull, which surprised him, but his shirt was soaked red. The wound was smoking. He was pretty sure sword wounds weren't supposed to smoke.</p><p>Emily held her hands over the wound and summoned her healing fire. She took a deep breath and exhaled, letting the power flow over Jason's body. Her fire absorbed into his body, causing his wound to glow and his entire body to warm as the fire sank in. "Internal damage seems to be…eroding. I'm working to fight against the spread. I'll keep it contained."</p><p>"Annabeth, ambrosia!" Piper ordered.</p><p>Annabeth stirred. "Yeah. Yeah, I got it." She ripped through her supply pouch and unwrapped a piece of godly food.</p><p>"We have to stop the bleeding," Audrey said. She and Piper used their weapons to start ripping fabric from the ends of their dresses and then ripped them into cloth and bandages. "Don't worry, Jason. I'm used to having little to work with for wounds. Self-taught first-aid pro!"</p><p>He chuckled. Jason dimly wondered how <em>Piper</em> knew so much first aid. She wrapped the wounds on his back and stomach while Annabeth pushed tiny bites of ambrosia into his mouth. Annabeth's fingers trembled. After all the things she'd been through, Jason found it odd that she would freak out now while Piper acted so calm. Then it occurred to him - Annabeth could <em>afford</em> to be scared for him. Piper couldn't. She was completely focused on trying to save him. Kaze shuffled nervously, standing back and letting the girls do their work. If they asked him for something, he provided it from his magic coat pockets, but otherwise he let the girls do the work saving their friend. He was looking around anxiously.</p><p>"I bet he's wondering where you are," my captor said. "Such an interesting thing, this place of yours. I can hide you with such ease, and capture any spirits I please."</p><p>"Kaze!"</p><p>"He won't hear you."</p><p>"Who <em>are</em> you?"</p><p>I tried to turn and look at them. They looked pretty gender ambiguous, with hair split down the middle, one side completely white, the other side completely black. They had lipstick split down the middle as well, opposite of their hair, and eyeshadow that was a deliberate gradient between black and white.</p><p>"Project Tau, given the code name Mirage. And you, Death, look far too puny to have possibly escaped on your own."</p><p>He tossed me free and I landed on the invisible white plane that made the Veil. A screen to the real world appeared in front of us, but the Veil wouldn't respond to my commands.</p><p>"What do you want from me?" I asked.</p><p>He waved his finger, causing the image to shift positions so that we had a new perspective. "<em>I</em> want very little, honestly. I'm just here to hold you until the time is right. I'm the only one that can, after all."</p><p>"What do you mean?"</p><p>"Shhh, darling, you'll see."</p><p>Annabeth fed Jason another bite. "Jason, I…I'm sorry. About your mom. But the way you handled it…that was so brave."</p><p>Jason was trying not to close his eyes. Every time he did, he saw his mom's spirit disintegrating.</p><p>"It wasn't her," he said. "At least, no part of her I could save. There was no other choice."</p><p>Annabeth took a shaky breath. "No other <em>right</em> choice, maybe, but…a friend of mine, Luke. His mom…similar problem. He didn't handle it as well."</p><p>Her voice broke. I didn't know much about Annabeth's past, but Piper glanced over in concern.</p><p>"I've bandaged as much as I can," she said. "Blood is still soaking through. And the smoke. I don't get that."</p><p>"Hold on," Emily said. She set more of her fire into the wound. "That's odd. I can cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding, but it's still eating away at him. I'll need to implement a method that constantly fights the spread."</p><p>"So it's like an infectious parasite," Audrey deduced. "It's eating away at him so one single healing burst won't stop it."</p><p>"Imperial gold," Annabeth said, her voice quavering. "It's deadly to demigods. It's only a matter of time before-"</p><p>"He'll be all right," Piper insisted. "We've got to get him back to the ship."</p><p>"I don't feel that bad," Jason said. And it was true. The ambrosia and Emily's fire had cleared his head and warmth seeped back into his limbs. "Maybe I could fly…" Jason sat up. His vision turned a pale shade of green. "Or maybe not…"</p><p>Piper caught his shoulders as he kneeled sideways. "Whoa, Sparky. We need to contact the Argo II, get help."</p><p>"You haven't called me Sparky in a long time."</p><p>Piper kissed his forehead. "Stick with me and I'll insult you all you want."</p><p>"A true sign of love," Audrey commented.</p><p>"Flying is not good for your condition," Kaze said. "It is very unstable while you are unstable." He was looking around. "Azrael's Veil is safer."</p><p>"I could use my water," Audrey offered.</p><p>"I don't want to disturb the fire," Emily said. "Would an ice gurney be too difficult?"</p><p>"If you don't mind the cold, Jason."</p><p>"It might help with numbing the pain too," Piper pointed out. "Okay. We should still inform everyone of the situation and get the infirmary ready. Also tell them that we don't need the air strike."</p><p>Annabeth scanned the ruins. The magic veneer had faded, leaving only broken walls and excavation pits. "We could use the emergency flares, but-"</p><p>"Leo would blast the top of the hill with Greek fire," Emily finished. "Kaze, run to the ship and tell them what's happening. Actually, you should scout the area for any more hostiles first."</p><p>Kaze looked around nervously. "I will search." He disappeared in a flash of speed.</p><p>Piper rummaged in her belt pouch and pulled out a compact mirror. "Annabeth, you know Morse code?"</p><p>"Of course."</p><p>"So does Leo." Piper handed her the mirror. "He'll be watching from the ship. Go to the ridge-"</p><p>"And flash him!" Annabeth's face reddened. "That came out wrong. But yeah, good idea." She ran to the edge of the ruins.</p><p>Piper pulled out a flask of nectar and gave Jason a sip. "Hang in there. You are <em>not</em> dying from a stupid body piercing."</p><p>Jason managed a weak smile. "At least it wasn't a head injury this time. I stayed conscious the entire fight."</p><p>"You defeated like two hundred enemies. You were <em>scary</em> amazing."</p><p>"You guys helped."</p><p>"Yeah, but obviously <em>you</em> did most of the work," Audrey said.</p><p>"Hey, stay with me," Piper urged. Jason's head started to droop. The cracks in the stones came into sharper focus.</p><p>"Little dizzy," he muttered.</p><p>"More nectar," Piper ordered. "There. Taste, okay?"</p><p>"Yeah. Yeah, fine."</p><p>In fact the nectar tasted like liquid sawdust, but Jason kept that to himself. Ever since the House of Hades, when he'd resigned his praetorship, ambrosia and nectar didn't taste like his favorite foods from Camp Jupiter. It was as if the memory of his old home no longer had the power to heal him.</p><p>Emily lit her hands ablaze and began feeding more fire into the wound. Annabeth was right about Imperial gold; the stuff was deadly to demigods as well as monsters. The wound from Varus's blade was doing its best to eat away at Jason's life force. Jason had seen a demigod die like that once before. It hadn't been fast or pretty.</p><p>"Mm, the Veil is tugging at him," Mirage said. "You can feel it, eh? Final thoughts, the creeping death seeping into his bones. Listen."</p><p>"<strong><em>I can't die. My friends are depending on me.</em></strong>"</p><p>Antinous's words rang in his ears - about the giants in Athens, the impossible trip facing the Argo II, the mysterious hunter Gaea had sent to intercept the Athena Parthenos.</p><p>"Reyna, Nico, Ane, and Coach Hedge," Jason said. "They're in danger. We need to warn them."</p><p>"We'll take care of it when we get back to the ship," Piper promised. "Your job right now is to relax." Her tone was light and confident, but her eyes brimmed with tears. "Besides, those four are a tough group. They'll be fine. Didn't you hear? Ane took on an entire <em>army</em> in Tartarus."</p><p>Jason hoped she was right. Reyna had risked so much to help them. Coach Hedge was annoying sometimes, but he'd been a loyal protector for the entire crew. Ane was a monster from Tartarus, but Rei (with her godly Primordials) and Kaze trusted her. She seemed determined to escort them and make right all her wrongs. Besides, she had helped Annabeth and Percy escape from Tartarus. If she had the power to avoid fate and prophecies, then anything Gaea thought was inevitable was all up in the air. And then there was Nico…Jason felt especially worried about him.</p><p>Piper brushed her thumb against the scar on his lip. "Once the war is over…everything will work out for Nico. You've done what you could, being a friend to him."</p><p>Jason wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't told Piper anything about his conversations with Nico. He'd kept di Angelo's secret. Still…Piper seemed to sense what was wrong. As a daughter of Aphrodite, maybe she could tell when somebody was struggling with heartache. Hell, she might have senses similar to Emily where she could read your mind without <em>reading</em> your mind. She hadn't shown signs of it - on the outside, anyway. Either way, she hadn't pressured Jason to talk about it. He appreciated that.</p><p>Another wave of pain made him wince and Emily increased her fire, helping numb the sensation.</p><p>"Concentrate on my voice." Piper kissed his forehead. "Think about something good. Birthday cake in the park in Rome-"</p><p>"That was nice."</p><p>"Last winter. The s'mores fight at the campfire."</p><p>"I totally got you."</p><p>"You had marshmallows in your hair for days!"</p><p>"I did not."</p><p>Jason's mind drifted back to better times. He just wanted to stay there - talking with Piper, holding her hand, not worrying about giants or Gaea or his mother's madness. He knew they should get back to the ship. He was in bad shape. They had the information they'd come for. But as he lay there on the cool stones, Jason felt a sense of incompleteness. The story of the suitors and Queen Penelope…his thoughts about family…his recent dreams. Those things all swirled around in his head. There was something more to this place - something he'd missed.</p><p>Audrey carefully slipped a pool of water under Jason and warmed it up like a mild hot pack.</p><p>Annabeth came back limping from the edge of the hill.</p><p>"Are you hurt?" Jason asked her.</p><p>Annabeth glanced at her ankle. "It's fine. Just the old break from the Roman caverns. Sometimes when I'm stressed…That's not important. I signaled Leo. They're setting up the infirmary. We can make a litter to keep you stable while we transport you. By water, by wind, doesn't matter. Frank offered to change, fly up here, and carry you back to the ship."</p><p>Jason had a terrifying image of himself in a hammock, swinging between the claws of Frank the giant eagle. "Yeah, I'll take the water or the wind, please."</p><p>"Where <em>is</em> Kaze?" Audrey wondered. "It can't have taken him <em>this</em> long to search the whole island."</p><p>"He was searching for Azrael," Emily informed them. "He was worried. Azrael hadn't shown up to help us. Azrael didn't answer when Kaze said his name. Azrael could be in danger, taken by the many undead here. If he's in the Veil fighting off some of the suitors that had disappeared…well, Kaze doesn't like leaving things to chance."</p><p>"Annabeth, if you can make a solid sling, then he'd be more stable," Audrey admitted. "I don't wanna control any liquids in his body, and he'd be floating on water or held in a slippery ice carrier."</p><p>"I don't mind," Annabeth said. "No problem."</p><p>She set to work. She collected scraps left behind by the suitors - a leather belt, a torn tunic, sandal straps, a red blanket, and a couple of broken spear shafts. Her hands flew across the materials - ripping, weaving, tying, braiding.</p><p>"How are you doing that?" Jason asked in amazement.</p><p>"Learned it during my quest under Rome." Annabeth kept her eyes on her work. "I'd never had a reason to try weaving before, but it's handy for certain things, like getting away from spiders…" She tied off one last bit of leather cord and voilà - a stretcher large enough for Jason, with spear shafts as carrying handles and safety straps across the middle.</p><p>Piper whistled appreciatively. "The next time I need a dress altered, I'm coming to you."</p><p>"Shut up, McLean," Annabeth said, but her eyes glinted with satisfaction. "Now, let's get him secured-"</p><p>"Wait," Jason said.</p><p>His heart pounded. Watching Annabeth weave the makeshift bed, Jason had remembered the story of Penelope - how she'd held out for twelve years, waiting for her husband Odysseus to return.</p><p>"A bed," Jason went on. "There was a special bed in this place."</p><p>Piper looked worried. "Jason, you've lost a lot of blood."</p><p>"Not really," Audrey said. "What are you talking about, Jason?"</p><p>"The marriage bed," he said. "The marriage bed was sacred. "If there was <em>any</em> place you could talk to Juno…" He took a deep breath and called, "Juno!"</p><p>Silence.</p><p>"Wait for it," Mirage muttered.</p><p>About sixty feet away, the stone floor cracked. Branches muscled through the earth, growing in fast motion until a full-sized olive tree shaded the courtyard. Under a canopy of gray-green leaves stood a dark-haired woman in a white dress, a leopard-skin cape draped over her shoulders. Her staff was topped with a white lotus flower, her expression was cool and regal.</p><p>"My heroes," said the goddess.</p><p>"Hera," Piper said.</p><p>"Juno," Jason corrected.</p><p>"Whatever," Annabeth grumbled. "What are you doing here, Your Bovine Majesty?"</p><p>Juno's dark eyes glittered dangerously. "Annabeth Chase. As charming as ever."</p><p>"Yeah, well, I just got back from <em>Tartarus</em>, so my manners are a little rusty, especially towards goddesses who wiped my boyfriend's memory, made him disappear for months, and then-"</p><p>"Honestly, child. Are we going to rehash this again?"</p><p>"Aren't you supposed to be suffering from split personality disorder? I mean - more so than usual?"</p><p>"Whoa," Jason interceded. He had plenty of reasons to hate Juno, but they had other issues to deal with. "Juno, we need your help. We-" Jason tried to sit up and immediately regretted it.</p><p>"Hey! Don't push yourself!" Emily exclaimed. "I'm barely keeping you stable right now, do don't go pulling any stunts."</p><p>Piper kept him from falling over. "First things first. Jason is hurt. Heal him!"</p><p>The goddess knit her eyebrows. Her form shimmered unsteadily.</p><p>Mirage smiled. "Poor little goddess. Boss, she's here. Prepare for infiltration."</p><p>"Hey, wait-!"</p><p>Mirage put a finger to my lips and my mouth felt sealed closed. "Hush, little one. It'll all be over soon. Be a dear and play your part."</p><p>"Some things even the gods cannot heal," Juno said. "This wound touches your soul as well as your body. You must fight it, Jason Grace…you <em>must</em> survive."</p><p>"Yeah, thanks," Jason said, his mouth dry. "I'm trying."</p><p>"What do you mean, the wound touches his soul?" Piper demanded. "Why can't you-?"</p><p>"My heroes, our time here is short," Juno said. "I am grateful that you called upon me. I have spent weeks in a state of pain and confusion…my Greek and Roman natures warring against each other. Worse, I've been forced to hide from Jupiter, who searches for me in his misguided wrath, believing that <em>I</em> caused this war with Gaea."</p><p>"Gee," Annabeth muttered, "why would he think <em>that?</em>"</p><p>Juno flashed her an irritated look. "Fortunately, this place is sacred to me. By clearing away those ghosts, you have purified it and given me a moment of clarity. I will be able to speak to you - if only briefly."</p><p>"Why is it sacred…?" Piper's eyes widened. "Oh. The marriage bed!"</p><p>"Marriage bed?" Annabeth asked. "I don't see any-"</p><p>"The bed of Penelope and Odysseus," Audrey explained. "One of its bedposts was a living olive tree, so it could never be moved."</p><p>"Indeed." Juno ran her hand along the olive tree's trunk. "An immovable marriage bed. Such a beautiful symbol! Like Penelope, the most faithful wife, standing her ground, fending off a hundred arrogant suitors for years because she knew her husband would return. Odysseus and Penelope - the epitome of a perfect marriage!"</p><p>"Well, Odysseus <em>did</em> fall for other women during his travels-"</p><p>Emily cut Audrey off. "How sweet!"</p><p>"Can you advise us, at least?" Jason asked. "Tell us what to do?"</p><p>"Sail around the Peloponnese," said the goddess. "As you suspect, that is the only possible route. On your way, seek out the goddess of victory in Olympia. She is out of control. Unless you can subdue her, the rift between Greek and Roman can never be healed."</p><p>"You mean Nike?" Annabeth asked. "How is she out of control?"</p><p>"Antinous <em>did</em> mention that Victory was running rampant in Olympia," Emily recalled.</p><p>Thunder boomed overhead, shaking the hill.</p><p>"Explaining would take too long," Juno said. "I must flee before Jupiter finds me. Once I leave, I will not be able to help you again."</p><p>"Ready, Boss?" Mirage asked.</p><p>Jason bit back a retort: '<em>When did you help me the first time?</em>'</p><p>"What else should we know?" he asked.</p><p>"As you heard, the giants have gathered in Athens. Few gods will be able to help you on your journey, but I am not the only Olympian who is out of favor with Jupiter. The twins have also incurred his wrath. I won't say I feel bad for him having his head split open by that mad creature; it gave <em>me</em> a moment's reprieve as well."</p><p>Audrey's eyes narrowed. "Wait, what do you mean by-?"</p><p>"If you reach the island of Delos, they might be prepared to help you. They are desperate enough to try anything to make amends. Go now. Perhaps we will meet again in Athens, if you succeed. If you do not…"</p><p>"Now!"</p><p>Kaze's voice rang out. "Look out!"</p><p>"Here we go," Mirage said. He grabbed my shoulder and pulled me forward. I was suddenly wrapped in ropes, pinning my arms to my body, and a gag was placed in my mouth, a cloth tied around my head to hold it in place. "Pardon the roughness, Death."</p><p>He pulled me through the Veil and into the real world with a disorienting jolt. All at once things happened. I saw a flash of a large net. The olive tree that Juno had grown suddenly pulled back into the earth, leaving Juno exposed. The net hit her first, burning her skin and causing her flickering skin to stabilize into corporeal form.</p><p>"Azrael!"</p><p>Kaze came rushing for me, but Mirage held out his hand and suddenly Kaze came to a stop. Or more accurately, he was slowed down. He was moving at incredibly slow speeds, like when I used the Veil to slow my perception of time, causing everything else to move at high speeds. The olive tree roots slinked across the cracked floors and grabbed Kaze, ensnaring him easily. A woman with dark skin in a pure white hunter's outfit appeared out of the ground, standing atop one of the olive tree roots that held her up. Her hair was shocking white, cascading in a braid down her back. Kaze's face slowly turned to her with shock.</p><p>"Ooo, I'm liking <em>this</em>," Mirage commented.</p><p>"Hera!" Audrey threw out a whip of water to grab the net, clearly made of some kind of Celestial bronze and/or Imperial gold substance. The marble of the floor shot up to block her whip, though she did some damage to it from the force she was attacking. "What the-?"</p><p>"Look out!" Annabeth grabbed her sword and parried an Imperial gold sword, protecting Piper and Jason.</p><p>"Hm, quick reflexes." A boy with curly brown hair smiled at her. "You're not worthless then, eh? Not bad-looking, either. But nothing beats my Tilly. Hell, even <em>Boss</em> looks better. Blondes, man. So beautiful, yet <em>so</em> confusing." Annabeth threw him away with a battle cry, but he back-flipped and landed back on his feet. "Ooo, feisty! Did I strike a nerve there, blondy?"</p><p>"<em>I'm</em> going to slaughter you before <em>she</em> does." A girl glared at him. She was dressed in casual traveling clothes, and her long blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. "Better yet, I'll give you a long, painful, agonizing disease."</p><p>"He's going to get a whipping at this rate," a girl with short blonde hair in a white combat suit said. I realized that she heavily resembled Annabeth, down to the storm-gray eyes. She wasn't identical, but the resemblances were uncanny. "Forge! Secure the goddess!"</p><p>"Yeeeeesss, ma'am!"</p><p>A boy with dark skin and short curly hair that reminded me of Leo jumped out of the trees and swung a large forging hammer as tall as he was at the captured Juno. He struck the net and a loud clang rang out as if he'd hit an anvil. The net glowed with a purple hue before reconfiguring itself into an opaque metal box. It began shrinking down to the size of a Rubix cube, and he picked it up, hefting his forging hammer onto his shoulder with one arm like it was nothing.</p><p>"Mission accomplished, Boss!" he called.</p><p>"Aw, and I didn't even get to <em>do</em> anything!" the blonde with the ponytail whined.</p><p>"Tilly, don't be so down!" The boy who'd clashed with Annabeth threw an arm around her shoulders. "<em>I'll</em> always find a use for you."</p><p>She elbowed him in the ribs. "Don't push it, Hatter."</p><p>"Boss, do we retreat?" A boy with short black hair walked up to her.</p><p>"Yes, Quake."</p><p>"Do we bring <em>them?</em>" the woman with the white braid who was controlling the plants asked.</p><p>"No. Leave them. We don't need them yet. Pain?"</p><p>"Yes ma'am." A girl dressed like a goth with her dark hair pulled into two braids under a beanie raised a dagger.</p><p>The newcomers all gathered together, joining Mirage who tossed me forward with incredible strength. Kaze was tossed away by the woman controlling the plants, though he fell in slow motion.</p><p>"They're taking Juno!" Jason muttered. "Stop them!"</p><p>Audrey summoned all the water and wine in the area to attack. The one called Quake threw up his arms and the marble and earth pulled up into a wall that blocked the attack. He threw his arms out and the wall exploded into a shower of stones. Audrey pulled the water from her water bottles and held up a water barrier to protect them.</p><p>"Careful, darling." The one called Tilly held up her hand and then flicked her index finger. Jason staggered and cried out in pain.</p><p>"Stop it!" Piper screamed. "What is she doing?!"</p><p>Emily held her hands out and engulfed Jason in her fire. "She's giving him diseases."</p><p>"Can you heal them?"</p><p>"Yes, but it'll interfere with Varus's stab if this goes on!"</p><p>"Stop!" Annabeth shouted. "Leave him alone. We surrender, just leave him be." She stabbed her bone sword in front of her and held her hands up. She eyed Audrey, who gave her a wary look before lowering her arms and dropping her water barrier. Annabeth's eyes locked onto the woman who resembled her. "Who are you? What do you want?"</p><p>"You will find out," the one the others called 'Boss' said. "All you need know is that our patron has been freed, and <em>you</em> will decide the fate of your people and the gods. You will decide whether we are friend or foe. You will decide if we will help or hinder you. Journey to Athens to save your world. We will meet you there as well. Whether we assist you, the giants, or the gods, depends on how you follow fate's path. Don't worry. Juno will be safe in our care. See you soon, Annabeth Chase."</p><p>Mirage pulled the Veil around them. Emily sprinted towards them.</p><p>"What are you-?!" "No, wait!" "Emily!"</p><p>The girl with the beanie and the braids lifted her leg and sliced her achilles heel. Emily cried out and fell as though she'd been tripped. The beanie girl also shouted and a shockwave threw her back. The other party disappeared into the Veil with Mirage.</p><p>My bonds disappeared like an illusion. The storm above cleared as well. Kaze finally hit the ground after being thrown away, returning to normal speed.</p><p>"What just happened…?" Piper muttered.</p><p>"Nevermind," Annabeth said, though her voice felt uncertain. "Let's just get back to the ship."</p><p>"Azrael!" Kaze zoomed over to my side. He studied my arms. There were still marks on my skin from the ropes. "You're okay?"</p><p>I wiped my mouth. My tongue still hurt from the gag, but I'd been done no real harm. "I'm fine."</p><p>He pulled me into a tight hug. "<em>Check you out later,</em>" he muttered. I realized he'd started speaking in his native tongue and I was just translating. I liked the click of his words when he spoke Japanese.</p><p>I looked up and noticed that his eyes had returned to normal - or at least his sclera were white again and he looked more human. It was an illusion, but it proved he was back in control of himself at least. I could feel he was shaken though. A reanimation wouldn't have been shaken, so that was more proof he was back, but I wonder what could've spooked him so badly. I wondered if he knew who those people were.</p><p>"Hey! They left one!" Audrey exclaimed.</p><p>The beanie girl had been thrown out of range of the Veil when she'd tried to cut herself and somehow debilitated Emily. She'd been left behind.</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. And the Walls Kept Tumbling Down</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m debating between making Ane’s POV first-person or not considering I intended for her to be an ethereal being that I don’t want readers to connect to personally. Also I considered making her first-person because I’m inevitably going to forget who’s in first-person and who’s in third-person and I’ll mix them up and AH! She’s going to be in third-person for now, but I might switch her to first maybe later.</p><p>Reviews :)</p><p>PpsapP: I might be able to make a story for short-term readers once I finish this book and I have all of the story fleshed out. The point of my long stories is that they develop as they go and evolve and even if I have a list of notes points that I want to happen, things change by the time I get to the final product. But thanks to you I will make a shorter version once I've finished everything that's happened in this book. I could go and do the other finished books, but I want to keep on a schedule and keep in the present so that I don't confuse myself with the past me who didn't have all of this fleshed out. I had a vague vision of this book when I started, but now I've gotta sort out the whole of things. My new characters, for example, I didn't come up with until the end of the last book :)<br/>But making a short thing where I list out the characters, important points of their backgrounds like their parents and stuff and listening their powers might actually be a worthy endeavor (I have a lot of that listed in my notes actually so that I keep track of my character's abilities myself, so organizing that could be beneficial for me and a reading audience). I'll put in an author's note when I've added that to the beginning of the story.</p><p>Even Reyna's part of the story feels long and dragged out. Her dream sequence is just depressing so I skipped out on transcribing it and just put the information in as a quick summary.</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Third Person: Ane</p><p>Ane had never thought about a bucket list before. She was a monster, she was a creature born literally as a result of someone else's death - the remnants left behind as her big sister returned to life and she became her death. Ane liked to consider her bucket list just a list of things that she wanted to do in life now that she had been freed from Tartarus, with the risk that she might go back one day if ever she herself perished.</p><p>Dive-bombing a volcano was <em>not </em>on Ane's bucket list. If anything, it reminded her of Tartarus again. On the bright side, she finally got to see Italy! From five thousand feet in the air. To the west, along the crescent of the Gulf of Naples, the lights of sleeping cities glittered in the predawn gloom. A thousand feet below, a half-mile-wide caldera yawned at the top of a mountain, white steam pluming from the center.</p><p>Ane was the first to recover after shadow-travel. Even so, disorientation from appearing in the middle of the air was nothing to be ashamed of. For the other humans, shadow-travel left them groggy and nauseous, as if they'd been dragged from the cold waters of a frigidarium into a sauna at a Roman bathhouse (Reyna's description). Then she realized that they were suspended in midair. Gravity took hold, and they began to fall.</p><p>"Nico!" Reyna screamed.</p><p>"Pan's pipes!" cursed Gleeson Hedge.</p><p>"Whaaaa!" Nico flailed, slipping from Ane's grip.</p><p>'<strong><em>Ane!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Whee!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Not again!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Do something!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>I like trains.</em></strong>' '<strong><em>One what do we do?!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Scream real loud!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Fly!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Get the statue!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Where's the boy?!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Where's the girl?!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Ignore the goat and save the apples!</em></strong>' '<strong><em>Mine turtle!</em></strong>'</p><p>"Shut up!" Ane screamed.</p><p>"What?!" Reyna shouted.</p><p>"Not you!"</p><p>Ane threw out her hands and a human chain of Remnants appeared to grab Reyna and then Nico before they went flying away. Ane had control over them so they at least didn't do any instant harm upon touching any of them, but normally her Remnants could inflict whatever death that had happened to them onto those that they touched. All of her Remnants appeared the way they did when they died - broken or crushed limbs, skin covered in radiation or poison, etc. The chain of Remnants pulled so that the next could get a grip on the humans before disappearing into a shower of dust, shortening the chain until Ane reunited them. Reyna grabbed Coach Hedge by the shirt and snatched Nico's hand while Ane pulled herself so her arms were wrapped above Nico's shoulders from behind.</p><p>They plummeted towards the volcano as their largest piece of luggage - the forty-foot-tall Athena Parthenos - trailed after them, leashed to a harness on Nico's back like a very ineffective parachute.</p><p>"That's Vesuvius below us!" Reyna shouted over the wind. "Nico, teleport us out of here!"</p><p>His eyes were wild and unfocused. His dark feathery hair whipped around his face like a raven shot out of the sky. "I…I can't! No strength!"</p><p>Coach Hedge bleated. "News flash, kid! Goats can't fly! Zap us out of here or we're gonna get flattened into an Athena Parthenos omelet!"</p><p>The lava was approaching fast. The Athena Parthenos was gaining on them, weighing a bit more than them and cutting through the air faster. Even if Nico shadow-travelled, they wouldn't have enough time-</p><p>Ane released Nico and pushed herself beneath the humans (and the satyr). She threw her arms downwards and screamed. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"</p><p>An enormous gust of wind blasted against the lava, a giant bubble seemed to pop below them, springing them back up - even the Athena Parthenos. The group ended up pressed against the statue as they were thrust away from the lava by a gust that knocked the wind out of them all. They stabilized at the peak of their arc and the winds became less fierce, but soon they began plummeting again.</p><p>"Do something now!" Ane kept her hands aimed downwards and the winds pushing towards the lava and slowing their descent, but she was quickly losing it.</p><p>"Nico, shadow-travel!" Reyna ordered. "I'll lend you strength!"</p><p>He stared at her blankly. "How-"</p><p>"<em>Do it!</em>"</p><p>She tightened her grip on his hand. The torch-and-sword symbol of Bellona on her forearm grew painfully hot, as if it were being seared into her skin for the first time. Nico gasped. Color returned to his face. The heat of the lava was beginning to reach unbearable levels - if they stayed any longer they'd start cooking, and only Ane's wind cooled them enough to stay alive any longer (if cool was the right word for a little less than boiling).</p><p>They slipped into the shadows.</p><p>The air turned frigid. The sound of the wind was replaced by a cacophony of voices whispering in a thousand languages. Ane felt her Remnants growing louder and even speaking to the voices around them, warding them off and maybe saying hello. Reyna had once said shadow-travel felt like her insides were a giant piragua - cold syrup trickled over crushed ice - her favorite treat from her childhood in Viejo San Juan.</p><p>Ane felt as they were thrown onto solid ground. The eastern sky had begun to lighten. For a moment she wondered if they were in Rome. Doric columns lined an atrium the size of a baseball diamond. In front of her, a bronze faun stood in the middle of a sunken fountain decorated with mosaic tile. Crape myrtles and rosebushes bloomed in a nearby garden. Palm trees and pines stretched skyward. Cobblestone paths led from the courtyard in several directions - straight, level roads of good Roman construction, edging low stone houses with colonnaded porches.</p><p>Ane turned. Behind her, the Athena Parthenos stood intact and upright, dominating the courtyard like a ridiculously oversized lawn ornament. The little bronze faun in the fountain had both his arms raised, facing Athena, so he seemed to be cowering in fear of the new arrival. On the horizon, Mount Vesuvius loomed - a dark, humpbacked shape now several miles away. Thick pillars of steam curled from the crest.</p><p>"We're in Pompeii," Reyna realized.</p><p>"What's a Pomp-hey?" Ane asked.</p><p>"Oh, that's not good," Nico muttered, and immediately he collapsed.</p><p>"Whoa!" Coach Hedge caught him before he hit the ground. The satyr propped him against Athena's feet and loosened the harness that attached Nico to the statue.</p><p>Ane sighed and sat down next to him. Her Remnants were arguing back and forth about whether that was fun, cool, close, terrifying, or all of the above, forever and ever amen. Reyna's own knees buckled. She always got backlash from sharing her strength, but she hadn't anticipated so much raw anguish from Nico di Angelo. She sat down heavily, just managing to stay conscious. That was only a portion of Nico's pain, and Reyna was brought to her knees instantly.</p><p>Ane smoothed her dress while Reyna tried to steady her breathing and Coach Hedge rummaged through his camping supplies. Around Nico's boots, the stones cracked; dark seams radiated outwards like a shotgun blast of ink, as if Nico's body were trying to expel all the shadows he'd traveled through. Ane reached over and took Nico's hands, sucking in a deep breath and absorbing the dark energy. Sometimes it got worse before Ane could intervene - yesterday an entire meadow withering, skeletons rising from the earth.</p><p>Ane collapsed beside Nico again. "Well <em>that </em>was fun. Never a dull day with you folk here in the Overworld, eh?"</p><p>"Drink something," Reyna urged.</p><p>She offered a canteen of unicorn draught - powdered horn mixed with sanctified water from the Little Tiber. They'd found it worked on Nico better than nectar, helping to cleanse the fatigue and darkness from his system with less danger of spontaneous combustion. Ane had learned that counterbalancing Nico's darkness helped them both, and any time that any of them faced fatal injuries, she could take them upon herself and add them to her Remnants. She hadn't had the chance to try it on the demigods in particular - since Nico's darkness was some of the only things she'd absorbed, but she'd tried it on some animals and some monsters they'd faced.</p><p>Nico gulped down the unicorn draught. He still looked terrible - his skin had a bluish tint, his cheeks were sunken, and hanging at his side, the scepter of Diocletian glowed angry purple, like a radioactive bruise. Ane reached out and touched it, feeling a small wave of warmth and comfort from the feeling of death and souls stirring and reacting to the scepter. She was helping keep Nico stable in many different ways. She had assumed that she'd be feeding Nico energy, and she <em>had </em>been, but more often than not she was absorbing the excess energy from Nico to help sustain herself. She hadn't expected it, but being up in the Overworld required her to sustain herself with death.</p><p>Rei was her big sister, and technically, Ane was Rei. She looked like the young girl Rei had been when she had first died. Because Rei's mother was a goddess of limit breaks - basically those power-ups that happen in times of desperation like when a loved one was in danger - Rei had been born with the power to receive an extreme boost of power every time she died, restoring her health and powering her up for a power-high until she won the battle that killed her and then passed out from an energy hangover.</p><p>But from those deaths, Ane was born - or as she originally went by, No. 1. She was the fragments of Rei that should have died, the part of her that fate should have taken to death. Rei's mother was forbidden from going to the human world, even more so to have children, and Ane was the proof of the disaster and anomalies that came of her breaking that rule. Born in Tartarus as a monster, Ane's ranks grew as Rei was captured and tortured in many ways, killed to be juiced like a battery by bad people. Ane was the name given to her when she'd escaped Tartarus along with Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase during a battle of the Primordials. Rei's adoptive brother, Kaze, had suggested the name Ane, meaning 'sister.' It was also close to the name 'One,' so it was accepted.</p><p>Whenever Rei got her power boost, it also temporarily staved off aging and death - the healing after one of her deaths extended her life. She was…around 200 years old by that point? As many times as Rei died, Ane's life was extended as well. It was happening a lot recently, and she wondered what her big sister was getting up to to be dying so many times in the past few days, but it was as least making her more and more powerful. Even so, a stream of deaths to absorb energized her, and she was hardly starving for energy.</p><p>Nico was studying Reyna. "How did you do that…that surge of energy?"</p><p>Reyna turned her forearm. The tattoo still burned like hot wax: the symbol of Bellona, SPQR, with four lines for her years of service. "I don't like to talk about it, but it's a power from my mother. I can impart strength to others."</p><p>Coach Hedge looked up from his rucksack. "Seriously? Why haven't you hooked me up, Roman girl? I want super-muscles!"</p><p>Reyna frowned. "It doesn't work like that, Coach. I can only do it in life-and-death situations, and it's more useful in large groups. When I command troops, I can share whatever attributes I have - strength, courage, endurance - multiplied by the size of my forces."</p><p>Nico arched an eyebrow. "Useful for a Roman praetor."</p><p>Reyna didn't answer. She preferred not to speak of her power for exactly this reason. She didn't want the demigods under her command to think she was controlling them, or that she'd become a leader because she had some special magic. She could only share the qualities she already possessed, and she couldn't help anyone who wasn't worthy of being a hero.</p><p>"Wonder what would've happened if you'd become a farmer," Ane muttered. "You'd share power with the plants and lead a rebellion of the corn."</p><p>Reyna couldn't help but chuckle. "That's an idea - if I ever get tired of this praetor business."</p><p>"Yeah, I'd rather <em>not </em>be reminded of corn," Nico muttered. Ane smiled as she remembered the multiple tales of Nico being turned into plants.</p><p>Coach Hedge grunted. "Too bad. Super-muscles would be nice." He went back to sorting through his pack, which seemed to hold a bottomless supply of cooking utensils, survivalist gear, and random sports equipment.</p><p>Nico took another swig of unicorn draught. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion, but Ane could tell he was fighting to stay awake.</p><p>"You stumbled just now," he noticed. "When you use your power…do you get some sort of, um, feedback from me?"</p><p>"It's not mind-reading," Reyna assured him. Ane had a feeling she got questions about it a lot. "Not even an empathy link. Just…a temporary wave of exhaustion. Primal emotions. Your pain washes over me. I take on some of your burden."</p><p>Nico's expression became guarded. He twisted the silver skull ring on his finger, the same way Reyna did with <em>her </em>silver ring when she was thinking. Sharing a habit with the son of Hades made her uneasy. Ane looked down at her finger, a replica of her mother's ring on her middle finger. The real Rei had always had a ring from her mother. Back when Rei was Ane's age, the ring had been on a necklace, but Kaze had provided her the ring when he'd gotten her clothes and provisions for her trip - it fit perfectly on her small finger. He was an amazing brother, even if the ring <em>was </em>just a replica.</p><p>Reyna looked just as uneasy as Nico was about their connection. She'd felt more pain from Nico in their brief connection than she had from her entire legion during their battle against the giant Polybotes. It had drained her worse than the <em>last </em>time she'd used her power, to sustain her pegasus Scipio during their journey across the Atlantic. She tried to push away that memory. Her brave winged friend, dying from poison, his muzzle in her lap, looking at her trustingly as she raised her dagger to end his misery…Gods no. She couldn't dwell on that or it would break her.</p><p>But the pain she'd felt from Nico was sharper. She knew it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try the same thing with Ane. Ane was no doubt even worse.</p><p>"You should rest," Reyna told Nico. "After two jumps in a row, even with a little help…you're lucky to be alive. We'll need you to be ready again by nightfall."</p><p>She felt bad asking him to do something so impossible. Unfortunately, she'd had a lot of practice pushing demigods beyond their limits. Ane was <em>born </em>out of a demigod being pushed beyond her limits, and she embodied the deity now known as Erótisi - query. She didn't argue with Reyna, but she <em>did </em>try to mediate the situation.</p><p>"I can provide you with energy, but pushing your body beyond its limits won't bode well for us," Ane said. "Dark energies of death are powerful, but not nourishing."</p><p>Nico clenched his jaw and nodded. "We're stuck here now." He scanned the ruins. "But Pompeii is the <em>last </em>place I would've chosen to land. This place is full of lemures."</p><p>"Lemurs?" Coach Hedge seemed to be making some sort of snare out of kite string, a tennis racket, and a hunting knife. "You mean those cute fuzzy critters-"</p><p>"<em>No</em>," Nico hissed. He sounded annoyed, like he got that question a lot. "<em>Lemures</em>. Unfriendly ghosts. All Roman cities have them, but in Pompeii-"</p><p>"The whole city was wiped out," Reyna remembered. "In 79 C.E, Vesuvius erupted and covered the town in ash."</p><p>"Whoa," Ane muttered. "Sounds…ashen."</p><p>Nico nodded. "A tragedy like that creates a <em>lot </em>of angry spirits."</p><p>Coach Hedge eyed the distant volcano. "It's steaming. Is that a bad sign?"</p><p>"I'm <em>sure </em>I didn't do anything to it," Ane said defensively.</p><p>"I'm not sure if it was directly your fault, Ane." Nico picked at a hole in the knee of his black jeans. "Mountain gods, the ourae, can sense children of Hades. It's possible that's why we were pulled off course. The spirit of Vesuvius might have been intentionally trying to kill us. But I doubt the mountain can hurt us this far away. Working up to a full eruption would take too long. The immediate threat is all around us."</p><p>The back of Reyna's neck tingled. She'd grown used to Lares, the friendly spirits at Camp Jupiter, but even <em>they </em>made her uneasy. They didn't have a good understanding of personal space; sometimes they'd walk right through her, leaving her with vertigo. Being in Pompeii gave Reyna the same feeling, as if the whole city was one big ghost that had swallowed her whole. She couldn't tell her friends how much she feared ghosts, or why she feared them. The whole reason she and her sister had run away from San Juan all those years ago…that secret had to stay buried.</p><p>"Can you keep them at bay?" Reyna asked.</p><p>Nico turned up his palms. "I've sent out that message: '<em>Stay away</em>.' But once I'm asleep, it won't do us much good."</p><p>Coach Hedge patted his tennis-racket-knife contraption. "Don't worry, kid. I'm going to line the perimeter with alarms and snares. Plus, I'll be watching over you the whole time with my baseball bat."</p><p>That didn't seem to reassure Nico, but his eyes were already half-closed. "Okay. But…go easy. We don't want another Albania."</p><p>"No," Reyna agreed.</p><p>Their first shadow-travel experience together, two days ago, had been a total fiasco, possibly the most humiliating episode in any of their long careers. Perhaps someday, if they survived, they would look back on it and laugh, but not now. The four of them had agreed never to speak of it. What happened in Albania would <em>stay </em>in Albania.</p><p>"I can maintain the signal," Ane volunteered. "My Remnants are eternal. No point in sleeping if you're already dead. They'll help keep watch."</p><p>Coach Hedge looked hurt. "Fine, whatever. Just rest, kid. We got you covered."</p><p>"All right," Nico relented. "Maybe a little…" He managed to take off his aviator jacket and wad it into a pillow before he keeled over and began to snore.</p><p>It was marvelous how peaceful he looked. The worry lines vanished, his face became strangely angelic…like his surname, '<em>di Angelo</em>.' One could almost believe he was a regular fourteen-year-old boy, not a son of Hades who had been pulled out of time from the 1940s and forced to endure more tragedy and danger than most demigods would in a lifetime.</p><p>When Nico had arrived at Camp Jupiter, Reyna didn't trust him. She'd sensed there was more to his story than being an ambassador from his father, Pluto. Now, of course, she knew the truth. He was a <em>Greek </em>demigod - the first person in living memory, perhaps the first <em>ever </em>to go back and forth between the Roman and Greek camps without telling either group that the other existed. The only exception would probably be deities, and that didn't really count.</p><p>Strangely, that made Reyna trust Nico <em>more</em>. Sure, he wasn't Roman. He'd never hunted with Lupa or endured the brutal legion training. But Nico had proven himself in other ways. He'd kept the camps' secrets for the best of reasons, because he feared war. He had plunged into Tartarus alone, <em>voluntarily</em>, to find the Doors of Death. He'd been captured and imprisoned by giants. He had led the crew of the Argo II into the House of Hades…and now he had accepted yet another terrible quest: risking himself to haul the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>The pace of the journey was maddeningly slow. They could only shadow-travel a few hundred miles each night, resting during the day to let Nico recover; but even that required more stamina from Nico than Reyna would have thought possible. He carried so much sadness and loneliness, so much heartache. Yet he put his mission first, he persevered. Reyna respected that. She understood that.</p><p>She'd never been a touchy-feely person, but she had the strangest desire to drape her cloak over Nico's shoulders and tuck him in. She mentally chided herself. He was a comrade, not her little brother. He wouldn't appreciate the gesture.</p><p>Ane pulled a black blanket out of her bag that Kaze had given her and draped it over Nico. Blankets helped with emotion, Ane knew. Maybe it'd help him sleep better.</p><p>"Hey," Coach Hedge announced, putting a hand on Reyna's shoulders. "You need sleep too. I'll take first watch with Ane and cook some grub. Those ghosts shouldn't be too dangerous now that the sun's coming up, and Ane's sending that message to top it off."</p><p>Pink and turquoise clouds striped the eastern horizon. The little bronze faun cast a shadow across the dry fountain.</p><p>"I've read about this place," Reyna realized. "It's one of the best-preserved villas in Pompeii. They call it the House of the Faun."</p><p>Gleeson glanced at the statue with distaste. "Yeah, well, today it's the House of the <em>Satyr </em>."</p><p>Ane giggled and Reyna managed a smile. Reyna was starting to appreciate the differences between satyrs and fauns. If she ever fell asleep with a <em>faun </em>on duty, she'd wake up with her supplies stolen, a mustache drawn on her face, and the faun long gone. Coach Hedge was different - mostly <em>good </em>different, though he did have an unhealthy obsession with martial arts and baseball bats.</p><p>"All right," Reyna agreed. "You take first watch. I'll put Aurum and Argentus on guard duty with you."</p><p>Hedge looked like he wanted to protest, but Reyna whistled sharply. The metallic greyhounds materialized from the ruins, racing towards her from different directions. Even after so many years, Reyna had no idea where they came from or where they went when she dismissed them, but seeing them lifted her spirits.</p><p>"Yay! Doggies!" Ane embraced the two hounds and pet them on their heads.</p><p>Hedge cleared his throat. "You <em>sure </em>those aren't Dalmatians? They look like Dalmations."</p><p>"They're greyhounds, Coach." Reyna had no idea why Hedge feared Dalmations, but she was too tired to ask right now. "Aurum, Argentum, guard us while I sleep. Obey Ane and Gleeson Hedge."</p><p>The dogs circled the courtyard, keeping their distance from the Athena Parthenos, which radiated hostility towards everything Roman. Reyna herself was only now getting used to it, and she was pretty sure the statue did not appreciate being relocated in the middle of an ancient Roman city.</p><p>Reyna laid down and pulled her purple cloak over herself. Her fingers curled around the pouch at her belt, where she kept the silver coin Annabeth had given her before they parted company in Epirus.</p><p>'<em>It's a sign that things can change,</em>' Annabeth had told her. '<em>The Mark of Athena is yours now. Maybe the coin will bring you luck.</em>'</p><p>Whether that luck would be good or bad, Reyna wasn't sure. She took one last look at the bronze faun cowering before the sunrise and the Athena Parthenos. Then she closed her eyes and slipped into dreams.</p><p>Ane stood and wandered the area, staying in range of the others. She scouted a perimeter and then sat down, closing her eyes and releasing a wave of light green smoke from her body. The Curses, born from a curse of Styx being broken. For Rei Chikara, the worst thing in the world for her was knowing that she had a choice. Curse was born out of the ability to defy the Fates, prophecies, and other such things. They were what allowed Ane to be her own person, rather than a shadow of Rei - a monster doomed to Tartarus. Ane was human-ish now, at least.</p><p>Recently, Ane had been sensing someone watching through the Curses, and she was determined to find out who it was. She slipped her consciousness through her Remnants and the Curses.</p><p>"<strong><em>Greetings.</em></strong>"</p><hr/><p>First Person: Quake</p><p>I glanced around the Goldsmith Winery on the north shore of Long Island. The entire Twelfth Legion was camped in the northernmost field, ready for their assault on Camp Half-Blood. Reyna, the legion's praetor, had ordered the bulk of the legion to remain in Manhattan until she told them otherwise, but Octavian - the Augur of Camp Jupiter, a son of Apollo supposedly gifted with the blessing of prophecies - had disobeyed her.</p><p>The legion had dug in with their usual military precision - ten-foot-deep trenches and spiked earthen walls around the perimeter, a watchtower on each corner armed with ballistae. Inside, tents were arranged in neat rows of white and red. The standards of all five cohorts curled in the wind.</p><p>"They're provoking a fight," Pestilence said.</p><p>"Well <em>that's </em>obvious enough," Hatter drawled. "Hardly a very interesting day, isn't it?"</p><p>"We captured a freaking <em>goddess</em>. Hera, no less. Will <em>nothing </em>satisfy you?"</p><p>"Nothing but you, sweetheart."</p><p>She rolled her eyes.</p><p>"Come on, Tilly, don't be such a stiff. We're having fun, aren't we? <em>War's </em>all riled up."</p><p>"She's <em>always </em>riled up. Her name is <em>War</em>. Her real name means the <em>King of Gore</em>. If she <em>weren't </em>riled up at the idea of conflict, I'd maybe have an aneurysm. But all these monsters are making me uneasy. I know that <em>you're </em>mad, but that octopus guy gathering all these sketchy people together? Even <em>Boss </em>isn't <em>that </em>stupid."</p><p>"Octavian," I corrected.</p><p>"Yeah, that dude." Tilly - Pestilence - pulled her hair into a bun as she spoke. "I get that he's all corrupt and stuff, but naming himself pontifex maximus basically means that he's calling himself an emperor."</p><p>"That Bryce Lawrence dude is just one of the many recent madmen without remorse that he's let back into the legion. My kinda people."</p><p>"Madmen are your people, but isn't this war exactly what we <em>don't </em>want to happen for the world not to be destroyed?"</p><p>Hatter shrugged. "Everyone here has been promised a place when the world ends."</p><p>"A bargain likely to be broken at first chance."</p><p>"A lot of these people follow Octavian because his madness is the madness that makes sense," a voice interrupted. A woman with brown hair that went down to her shoulders joined them. "They believe that the way to end the divide between Greeks and Romans is to eliminate the Greeks - make everything Roman. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. The Roman numbers will be halved at the very least. Greeks fight without organization, meaning they are not predictable and Romans are <em>very </em>predictable." She pulled out a small golden coin, flipping it between her fingers. "The odds are in the Greeks' favor now."</p><p>"You're choosing the Greeks, Seven?" Pestilence asked.</p><p>Seven smiled. "I like the underdogs. I want that self-proclaimed king to know fear."</p><p>"That's <em>my </em>job, lady," Hatter protested with a smirk.</p><p>"In any case, the Greeks will win this battle if it happens. The Romans will find themselves in disarray, the mad will find themselves suffering beyond compare."</p><p>"If War has anything to say about it, they'll be flayed and left to suffer," Pestilence muttered. "I could take down this entire army with a plague, if Boss said the word."</p><p>"But she hasn't," I interrupted. "And you do not dare act against her wishes, do you?"</p><p>Hatter shrugged. "Don't worry, Quake ol' boy. We know when to hold our tongues."</p><p>"<em>You </em>don't," Tilly muttered.</p><p>"I prefer psychological torture anyway, and Sandman is doing all the fun stuff."</p><p>"Boss is speaking to Octavian now," Seven said. "Who knows how <em>that's </em>going…"</p><p>"Boss is obviously superior in every way to that loser," Hatter whined. "Why do we have to pretend to bow down to that idiot?"</p><p>Tilly smiled at his frustration. "Because if you want that idiot to have a proper end, we need to play our hands properly. What's next on the agenda?"</p><p>I looked around the camp. "Famine and Sandman are already out on mission. Forge is securing Hera and preparing her accommodations. Pain is out on mission. Lust is flirting with people. Mirage is making random things happen in the camp to piss people off. I think Boss gave him free rein to mess with the insane and twisted people here. Anyone sane and rational and who doesn't want war we're to leave alone. But that's more than enough for Mirage. Hatter and Mirage are in charge of keeping the entire legion from attacking until necessary, and once the war begins, the Roman army needs to be weeded out by then. Famine will slaughter the rest we haven't gotten to."</p><p>"Where's Iota?"</p><p>I shrugged. "Can't feel her. Not even any grounding." I could always feel when Iota discharged her electricity into the ground. Electricity needed to ground itself, and even if she didn't I could usually feel a surge of electric charge.</p><p>Seven sighed and looked up to the sky. "Odds are, she's up there."</p><p>"Sometimes I wonder if she wants to meet Zeus," Pestilence sighed. "And other times I wonder if she wants the opportunity to punch him in the face."</p><p>"Punching <em>Apollo </em>in the face would be very like you."</p><p>"Hatter would more likely get mad-stinking drunk with Dionysus."</p><p>Hatter smirked. "I'd like to see him try and keep up with me."</p><p>"Arrogance will be your downfall," Seven warned. "The Fates enjoy turning the odds against the arrogant."</p><p>"Most of the gods are incapacitated right now. Even if they weren't, dear Dad hasn't ever come down for a chat or even a smiting yet."</p><p>"I wonder if Quake would be facing Neptune or Gaea," Tilly pondered.</p><p>I stared at them blankly. "I'll go get Boss."</p><p>I turned and walked away. I could feel the earth beneath my feet pulsing and stirring at all times. Out of all of us, I could hear Gaea the clearest, and she was constantly interfering with my powers. Resisting her was taking a great deal of strength, but I worked sleepless nights, gaining power, and as Gaea grew in strength so did I. Her whispers were sometimes incoherent and sometimes I could hear her clearly.</p><p>"<strong><em>You despise the gods, children. Join my forces and the end will come for the Olympians who have abandoned you so callously.</em></strong>"</p><p>Our fight against the gods hadn't really been going anywhere, mostly because our ambitions hadn't been that high. Recently we'd found a patron who enlisted us into a true rebellion. Boss seemed to trust them, and whatever Boss wanted, we followed.</p><p>"They will not march on Camp Half-Blood until August first, the Feast of Spes," Boss said. "The Curses are fortifying Camp Half-Blood, the Romans are disorganized by multiple forces. Octavian is properly under our control."</p><p>I could tell she was tired. Boss was always tired, though she hid it very well. Recently things had been getting worse for her, but she seemed to be handling it fine. Boss was not someone who lied and said she was fine when she was not. She was strong enough to never need assistance, and that was no lie or front. That's why she was put in charge of our team, and that's why she was our leader by our choice, not through intimidation or by someone else's decree. We were put together by the Wards, but we stay together on our own.</p><p>Sometimes I felt her trembling and her tense muscles, like extreme fatigue and exhaustion even though she had just eaten and rested. She never stopped being strong, and I wondered if it got tiring. I would pull her into a hug sometimes, no words, and she wouldn't fight it or ask why I was doing it. She just relaxed into my grip as if to say '<em>I know. Thanks</em>.' Then she would pull back abruptly and we would move on as if it never happened.</p><p>Once, it had just been Boss and I. In the end, I sometimes wished it was still that way. I sometimes felt it <em>was</em>. Boss and I against the world. Whether she ever understood my gestures, I didn't care. I would be there for her.</p><p>"Our next mission is the Straits of Corinth. We learned of many of the forces that are staged there during our trip to Ithaca. I want you, War, Mirage, Famine, and Seven to join me. Let none pass. Forge can join us if he's sure his contraptions are secure. Pestilence, Hatter, Iota, and Lust I want here to maintain damage control. We go after Death and Ventus when the time is right."</p><p>"Yes, Boss."</p><hr/><p>Third Person: Ane</p><p>"Hey, Ane! You better come see this!"</p><p>Ane turned her head. Her stuffed poodle climbed from her bag and hopped onto the grass. "Do?"</p><p>Ane picked it up before it could wander off on its own. "Goodbye, Mister."</p><p>"<strong><em>Goodbye.</em></strong>"</p><p>Ane returned to the makeshift camp beside the Athena Parthenos, weaving through a small crowd that hadn't been there before. "Coach?"</p><p>Hedge was leaning over a sleeping Reyna, shaking her shoulder to wake her up. "We got trouble."</p><p>His grave tone got her blood moving. "What is it?" She struggled to sit up. "Ghosts? Monsters?"</p><p>Hedge scowled. "Worse. <em>Tourists.</em>"</p><p>Ane glanced around, not understanding much of what was happening beyond mortals coming around in groups of twenty or thirty, swarming through the ruins, milling about the villas, wandering the cobblestone paths, gawking at the colorful frescoes and mosaics. I wondered what the Mist made the forty-foot-tall statue of Athena in the middle of the courtyard look like, but either way the mortals seemed to be uninterested in it - in a sense that they at least weren't swarming it in particular. Each time a group approached, they'd stop at the edge of the courtyard and stare in disappointment at the statue.</p><p>One British tour guide announced, "Ah, scaffolding. It appears this area is undergoing restoration. Pity. Let's move along." And off they went.</p><p>At least the statue didn't rumble, "DIE, UNBELIEVERS!" and zap the mortals to dust. Reyna mentioned she'd once dealt with a statue of the goddess Diana like that. It hadn't been her most relaxing day, but the story amused Ane.</p><p>Annabeth had said that the Athena Parthenos's magical aura both attracted monsters and kept them at bay. Sure enough, Ane kept turning her head and making eye contact with some glowing white spirits in Roman clothes flitting among the ruins, frowning at the statue in consternation. Ane's eyes narrowed at them and she started to reach out an aura of her Remnants and they backed off.</p><p>"Those lemures are everywhere," Gleeson muttered. "Keeping their distance for now - but come nightfall, we'd better be ready to move. Ghosts are always worse at night."</p><p>"They argue more," Ane agreed.</p><p>Ane watched as an elderly couple in matching pastel shirts and Bermuda shorts tottered through a nearby garden. They didn't come any closer. Ane wondered what they were supposed to do if they did. Ane considered Reyna in charge, and for now Ane knew that anything hostile was bad, but she didn't know how to handle wandering mortals. Usually being a cute little girl worked wonders on most mortals. Around the camp, Coach Hedge had rigged all sorts of trip wires, snares, and oversized mousetraps that wouldn't stop any self-replicating monster, but they might very well bring down a senior citizen. Ane kept her Remnants in shadow-form lurking about the edges of their camp as well just to be safe.</p><p>Reyna said that she'd had nightmares that she wanted to tell them about, but she wanted to wait for Nico to wake up. She wasn't sure she'd have the courage to describe them twice.</p><p>Nico kept snoring. They'd discovered that once he fell asleep, it took a <em>lot </em>to wake him up. The coach could do a goat-hoof tap dance around Nico's head, and the son of Hades wouldn't even budge. Ane tried shocking him once at increasingly strong jolts (also practicing her power over electricity) but nothing short of frying him would cause him to budge. She'd even gotten upset and started puppeting him by controlling the electrical currents in his body (again, practicing her powers).</p><p>"Here." Hedge offered Reyna a plate of flame-broiled Eggos with fresh sliced kiwi and pineapple. It all looked surprisingly good.</p><p>"Where are you getting these supplies?" Reyna marveled.</p><p>"Hey, I'm a satyr. We're <em>very </em>efficient packers." He took a bite of waffle. "We also know how to live off the land!"</p><p>"Kaze knows how to pack as well," Ane said. She dug a bag of chocolate chips out of her bag and then poured some on Reyna's waffles. "Chocolate is tasty, I've learned."</p><p>As they ate, Coach Hedge took out a notepad and started to write. When he was finished, he folded the paper into an airplane and tossed it into the air. A breeze carried it away.</p><p>"A letter to your wife?" Reyna guessed.</p><p>Under the rim of his baseball cap, Hedge's eyes were bloodshot. "Mellie's a cloud nymph. Air spirits send stuff by paper airplane all the time. Hopefully her cousins will keep the letter going across the ocean until it finds her. It's not as fast as an Iris-message, but, well, I want our kid to have some record of me, in case, you know…"</p><p>"We'll get you home," Reyna promised. "You <em>will </em>see your kid."</p><p>Hedge clenched his jaw and said nothing.</p><p>Reyna was pretty good at getting people to talk; she considered it essential to know her comrades-in-arms. But she'd had a tough time convincing Hedge to open up about his wife, Mellie, who was close to giving birth back at Camp Half-Blood. It was hard to imagine the coach as a father, but a lot of them understood what it was like to grow up without parents. They wouldn't let it happen to Coach Hedge's child.</p><p>"Yeah, well…" The satyr but off another piece of Eggo, including the stick he'd toasted it on. "I just wish we could move faster." He chin-pointed to Nico. "I don't see how this kid is going to last one more jump. How many more will it take to get us home?"</p><p>It was only eleven days till the giants planned to wake Gaea and Octavian planned to attack Camp Half-Blood. It couldn't be a coincidence. Perhaps Gaea was whispering into his ear, or worse: he was actively working with the earth goddess. It was hard to tell where his loyalties lied with how madly he was acting.</p><p>Ane ate a couple waffles as a group of Chinese tourists shuffled past the courtyard. Reyna had been awake for less than an hour and already she was restless to get moving.</p><p>Ane rested her hand on Nico's shoulder and touched his energies. He was like a flame in a rainstorm - you'd think he would flick out any second, but with only a droplet or two at a time affecting him, he was still hanging on. Ane could only give him a dark flame to light his fire, but she took a deep breath and then exhaled, sending the most peaceful energy she could. It was dangerous for Nico to absorb too much of Ane's power at a time; it was like a poisonous steroid, but they needed Nico to be ready, and he was growing more and more accustomed to dark energies. It was only thanks to his heritage that he could even begin to adapt, but he did. He was so resilient, Ane admired.</p><p>When Ane connected with Nico, she also sensed his connection to Zytaveon - the being now hosting Tartarus - or at least his consciousness. Rei loved Zytaveon; Ane thinks that's what she felt when she felt Zytaveon. She got very sad whenever she thought about Veon, and she felt a sudden urge to protect Nico if it meant protecting a part of Veon. The brothers had soul-bonded through a shadow-traveling incident a while back, and ever since they'd been able to connect to each other through a sort of empathy link and they could visit each other through their dreams. They sometimes shared thoughts, emotions, and Veon could sometimes switch places with his brother or even manage to lock onto his location and shadow-travel there instantly. Veon had followed Nico in his dreams as they had gone to Tartarus, and he'd used the connection along with the power of the Curse to reach Nico in his bronze jar in Rome. Unfortunately, they'd nearly choked to death during their rescue, but it was something to note at least.</p><p>"Thanks for the breakfast, Coach," Reyna said, finishing her meal. She got to her feet and stretched. "If you'll excuse me, where there are tourists, there are bathrooms. I need to use the little praetors' room."</p><p>"Go ahead." The coach jangled the whistle that hung around his neck. "If anything happens, I'll blow."</p><p>Reyna left Aurum and Argentum on guard duty and strolled through the crowds of mortals until she found a visitor center with restrooms. It was ironic that she was in an actual Roman city and couldn't enjoy a nice hot Roman bath. She had to settle for paper towels, a broken soap dispenser, and an asthmatic hand dryer. And the toilets…the less said about those, the better.</p><p>Ane left her Remnants to guard the others while she wandered to a small museum with a window display. Behind the glass lay a row of plaster figures, all frozen in the throes of death. A young girl was curled in a fetal position; woman lay twisted in agony, her mouth open to scream, her arms thrown overhead; a man knelt with his head bowed, as if accepting the inevitable.</p><p>Ane blinked at the displays with interest. She read some information on what had happened in the city. After the eruption of Vesuvius, volcanic ash had buried the city and hardened the rock around dying Pompeians. Their bodies had disintegrated, leaving behind human-shaped pockets of air. Early archaeologists had poured plaster into the holes and made these casts - creepy replicas of Ancient Rome.</p><p>These peoples' dying moments were on display like clothes in a shop window. As Ane was literally the embodiment of thousands of dying moments preserved as they were, Ane found it ironic - or maybe lucky.</p><p>Out of all the places that Reyna had secretly wanted to visit - though it was forbidden because of how dangerous the ancient lands were - she had never mentioned Pompeii. Ane could understand why. The journey of Aeneas, son of Aphrodite, the first demigod to settle in Italy after the Trojan war; the original Tiber River where Lupa the wolf goddess saved Romulus and Remus. These were tales that Reyna told with pride. But Pompeii was the site of Rome's most infamous disaster, an entire city swallowed by the earth…</p><p>The only place that Reyna had visited on her wish list was Diocletian's Palace in Split, and she had been accompanied not by Jason or any of her allies but a dozen angry wind spirits on her tail. She'd fought her way through ghosts in the palace, and on her way out, gryphons had attacked, mortally wounding her pegasus. The closest she'd gotten to Jason was finding a note he'd left for her under a bust of Diocletian in the basement.</p><p>But Aeneas had suffered, so did Romulus, Diocletian and all the rest. Romans don't complain about hardship. Ane admired their resilience, but she wondered if ever the people of Pompeii just curled up and died in the ashes thinking '<em>Well, we're Romans! We shouldn't complain! </em>' Probably not. When people died, they were usually scared. Ane wouldn't know. She embodied a thousand dead people walking, a woman who had only faced death with fear once. Every other time, she knew that she would live after death. Ane was the part of her that was left behind as the rest of her went on. But when Ane, No. 1, had first died, she had felt an existential wave of terror. She wanted her father, she wondered how fast it would be, she wondered where she would go afterwards, she was screaming at the unfairness of it all. She had been crying and screaming and kicking and fighting, and she had not accepted it one bit. Her father was the son of Roman Apollo, but she wasn't a part of a Roman legion, so she supposed she didn't count as a Roman.</p><p>The rest of the day was unnervingly quiet. Reyna and Ane kept watch while Coach Hedge slept, but there was nothing much to guard against. Tourists came and went, random harpies and wind spirits flew by overhead. Ane glared at movement, Reyna's dogs would snarl in warning, but the monsters didn't stop to fight.</p><p>Ghosts skulked around the edges of the courtyard, apparently intimidated by the Athena Parthenos. Ane couldn't blame them. The longer the statue stood in Pompeii, the more anger it seemed to radiate, making Ane's skin itchy. Her poodle started dancing around in unrest.</p><p>"DO…do, do, do…<em>do</em>…dooooooooo…do."</p><p>Finally, just after sunset, Nico woke. He wolfed down an avocado and cheese sandwich, the first time he'd shown a decent appetite since leaving the House of Hades. Reyna hated to ruin his dinner, but they didn't have much time. As the daylight faded, the ghosts started moving closer and in greater numbers. Ane's Remnants started sending out waves of warnings, a ring of shadows around their camp that released their dying screams.</p><p>Reyna explained that she'd had a nightmare with Gaea speaking into her ear. The works - that she had abandoned her people in New Rome and her legion in New York and that their quest was a fool's errand. The earth swallowed Camp Jupiter, Octavian was closing in on Camp Half-Blood, and interestingly a hunter with glowing eyes who had shot Reyna in the gut.</p><p>Ane observed her neutral face as she slowly started to get more irritated as she explained Octavian poisoning her legion from the inside. Camp Jupiter needed her, the Twelfth Legion needed her, yet Reyna was halfway across the world, watching a satyr cook Eggo blueberry waffles on a stick over an open fire.</p><p>"Your legion will be safe," Ane assured her. She took one of the blueberry waffles - her favorite, or at least Rei's. "At least, the good part of it." Ane said no more about what she knew. "You are journeying to save your legion, Reyna. You will return home to your camp. All will resolve itself."</p><p>"You sound so sure of yourself, and yet the legion and Camp Jupiter are not your home."</p><p>"Maybe not, but I am a monster, Reyna. I have no home. I am put on this world for one reason. Luckily, I seem to have forgotten that reason and so now I can do whatever I want."</p><p>"Do!" her poodle exclaimed in a squeaky voice. She had gotten a new small dress for her familiar so now they were matching.</p><p>Nico stared at his empty plate. "This hunter…a giant, maybe?"</p><p>Coach Hedge grunted. "I'd rather not find out. I say we keep moving."</p><p>Nico's mouth twitched. "<em>You </em>are suggesting we avoid a fight?"</p><p>"Listen, cupcake, I like a smackdown as much as the next guy, but we've got enough monsters to worry about without some bounty hunter giant tracking us across the world. I don't like the sound of those huge arrows."</p><p>"I got shot by an arrow once," Ane mused. "Or was it twice…?"</p><p>"For once," Reyna continued, "I agree with Hedge."</p><p>Nico unfolded his aviator jacket. He put his finger through an arrow hole in his sleeve. "I could ask for advice." Nico sounded reluctant. "Thalia Grace…"</p><p>"Jason's sister," Reyna remembered.</p><p>She'd never met Thalia. In fact, she'd only recently learned Jason <em>had </em>a sister. According to Jason, she was a Greek demigod, a daughter of Zeus, who led a group of Diana's - no, Artemis's - followers. The whole idea made Reyna's head spin.</p><p>Nico nodded. "The Hunters of Artemis are…well, <em>hunters</em>. If anybody knew about this giant hunter guy, Thalia would. I could try sending her an Iris-message."</p><p>"You don't sound very excited about the idea," Reyna noticed. "Are you two…on bad terms?"</p><p>"We're fine."</p><p>A few feet away, Aurum snarled quietly, which meant Nico was lying. Reyna decided not to press.</p><p>"I should also try and contact my sister, Hylla," Reyna said. "Camp Jupiter is lightly defended. If Gaea attacks there, perhaps the Amazons could help."</p><p>Coach Hedge scowled. "No offense, but, uh…what's an army of Amazons going to do against a wave of dirt?"</p><p>Reyna fought down a sense of dread. She suspected Hedge was right. Against what she'd seen in her dreams, the only defense would be to prevent the giants from waking Gaea. For that, she had to put her trust in the crew of the Argo II.</p><p>"Gaea could still send some monster forces to Camp Jupiter," Ane pointed out. "If they're really low on defenses, it would be easier for her to not even bother. And during the time <em>before </em>Gaea wakes, she could be trying to weaken the already light defenses just to add insult to injury. The gods - especially powerful ones - are arrogant. Gaea can't attack Camp Jupiter directly until she's awake. At the very least, the Amazons could buy some time and prevent any damage that could happen before Gaea plans to awaken. The preliminary strikes are what we should be worrying about right now."</p><p>Reyna nodded. "I'll send word to my sister to see if she can spare any forces."</p><p>The daylight was almost gone. Around the courtyard, ghosts were forming a mob - hundreds of glowing Romans carrying spectral clubs or stones.</p><p>"We can talk about more after the next jump," Reyna decided. "Right now, we need to get out of here."</p><p>"Yeah." Nico stood. "I think we can reach Spain this time if we're lucky. Just let me-"</p><p>The mob of ghosts vanished, like a mass of birthday candles blown out in a single breath.</p><p>Ane's familiar jumped into her arms and then frantically crawled across her body until she ended up hanging from her neck. "Do…!"</p><p>Reyna's hand went to her dagger. "Where did they go?"</p><p>Nico's eyes flitted across the ruins. His expression was not reassuring. "I-I'm not sure, but I don't think it's a good sign. Keep a lookout. I'll get harnessed up. Should only take a few seconds."</p><p>Ane looked down. "Primordial energies…"</p><p>Gleeson Hedge rose to his hooves. "<em>A few seconds you do not have.</em>"</p><p>Hedge spoke with a woman's voice - the same one Reyna had heard in her nightmare. She drew her knife.</p><p>Hedge turned towards her, his face expressionless. His eyes were solid black. "<em>Be glad, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano. You will die as a Roman. You will join the ghosts of Pompeii.</em>"</p><p>The ground rumbled. All around the courtyard, spirals of ash swirled into the air. They solidified into crude human figures - earthen shells like the ones in the museum. Their eyes, ragged holes in faces of shock - stared right at them.</p><p>"<em>The earth will swallow you,</em>" Hedge said in the voice of Gaea. "<em>Just as it swallowed them</em>."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The title of this comes from "Pompeii" by Bastille BTW</p><p>Side note, why does Archive of Our Own add spaces between italics and quotation marks sometimes and then omit spaces between italics and regular words sometimes? It is so frustrating having to go back and change that, so I might not even go back and change those when they happen and I'm feeling lazy.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Fleeing and Pain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ollie: Don't worry. I've taken long hiatuses before, but reviews encourage me to go on and I will never abandon a story. Especially since I'm so close to the end of this series, I'm definitely not abandoning this story unless I physically cannot reach the computer. I've had good stories that haven't been updated in over a decade and the comments section is full of sadness and begging to continue. If I ever plan on abandoning a story, I'd post an update to say that it's coming to an end. Thank you for being so enthusiastic about such a long story... *nervous chuckle* It's really long...</p><p>Aahh: Thanks!</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Sandman</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t tell you much about Famine. Her mind was a swirling mass of calamities hidden behind a mostly opaque barrier leaving all outside and inside trapped within a blizzard cold as her heart and namesake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She watched the rising earthen warriors of Pompeii without indicating that she cared or whether she was preparing to attack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced through the crowd to Reyna, the Roman that was so interesting. I wondered if she’d make a good Ward candidate. She already had such a big life as a Freebee that there was probably no way to discipline her easily, but it was something to ponder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are too many of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wondered how many times </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> had been said in a demigod’s carrier. They could get custom buttons made and wear them around to save time. They would probably be written on all our tombstones: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>There were too many of them.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s greyhounds stood on either side of her, growling at the earthen shells. There were at least forty, closing in from every direction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The satyr coach continued to speak in a very womanly voice: “</span>
  <em>
    <span>The dead always outnumber the living. These spirits have waited centuries, unable to express their anger. Now I have given them bodies of earth.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe we should’ve brought Quake,” I muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t say such foolish things, Sandman.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sandy,” I insisted. But Famine was one of those women that didn’t like nicknames - for others or for herself. And call her by her old real name and she’d probably put a mushroom in your head and make it grow out into your brain just for funsies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the earthen ghosts stepped forward. It moved slowly, but its footfall was so heavy it cracked the ancient tiles. The little girl Ane reached into her bag and pulled out a small cylinder the size of a hammer handle. It extended into a large three-foot silver blade about as tall as she was and she charged forward with the weapon raised to strike. The rocky warrior was tough, but she charged the blade with her energy and managed to chop off its outstretched arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was rendered breathless from that one attack, but it was the act of charging her blade with the power of her Remnants that had exhausted her, not wielding the sword itself. She was small, and she jumped with plenty of speed and strength still in her as she avoided getting crushed by the remaining arm that retaliated. She launched at the face of the next earthen warrior and sliced its head off - which didn’t do much to actually stop it since it was already dead, but she </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> cause it to stagger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pushing off its shoulder to the next earthen warrior, Ane charged her hand and pressed it to the creature’s chest. “498!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hand pulsed and a rippling effect of ashes began to overtake the warrior. It was slow, but the earthen monster began to dissolve into ashes, unable to hold itself together. Ane jumped from it before it dissolved beneath her, rejoining Reyna.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She landed in a crouching position, her heavy breathing accompanied by a sheen of sweat. She didn’t immediately rise and she was letting her sword fall to the stones beneath her, unable to hold it up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t…keep this up…for long…!” Her poodle jumped from its position sitting on the top of her bag, gripping the strap, and hurried over to Nico, climbing up his body to hang onto his shoulder. “Hurry up…and harness!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico?!” Reyna called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t control them,” he said, frantically untangling his harness. “Something about the rock shells, I guess. I need a couple of seconds to concentrate on making the shadow-jump. Otherwise I might teleport us into another volcano.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane managed to stand and primed her sword once more, charging it with her Remnants. “I can take out maybe half at most! My more powerful Remnants will leave me more vulnerable if I use them. The Overworld is much more draining, and I’ve only got maybe ten that will make any real impact on these things!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna cursed under her breath. “Use the scepter. Get me some zombies.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>It will not help,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Coach Hedge intoned. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Stand aside, Praetor. Let the ghosts of Pompeii destroy this Greek statue. A true Roman would not resist.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The earthen ghosts shuffled forward. Through their mouth holes, they made hollow whistling noises, like someone blowing across empty soda bottles. One stepped on the coach’s dagger-tennis-racket trap and smashed it to pieces.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reyna, if I summon </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> dead Romans…who’s to say they won’t join this mob?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> say. I am a praetor. Get me some legionnaires, and I’ll control them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You shall perish</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” said the coach. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>You shall never</span>
  </em>
  <span>-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh for Tartarus’s sake, shut up!” Ane jumped up and whacked the satyr on the back of the neck with the pommel of her sword. Hedge crumpled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Keep her out of him,” Famine suddenly ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged and pushed through Hedge’s mental barriers that were already smashed apart from the earth goddess. They weren’t very strong anyway. I closed off his mind to any other outside influences and then backed out of his mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, Coach,” Reyna muttered. “But that </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> getting tiresome. Nico - zombies! Then concentrate on getting us out of here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico raised his scepter and the ground trembled. Ane’s familiar waved a hand (paw?) over the scepter and started pouring energy into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The earthen ghosts chose that moment to charge. Aurum leaped at the nearest one and literally bit the creature’s head off with his metal fangs. The rock shell toppled backwards and shattered. Argentum was not so lucky. He sprang at another ghost, which swung its heavy arm and bashed the greyhound in his face. Argentum went flying. He staggered to his feet; his head was twisted forty-five degrees to the right and one of his ruby eyes was missing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Ane’s poodle called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t hurt my friends!” Ane snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She launched forward, cracking the pavement beneath her from the force of her leap. She smashed her sword straight down the shoulder and through the torso of the nearest earthen creature, bashing through it with a booming force.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna had already lost her pegasus; she was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to lose her dogs too. She slashed her knife through the ghost’s chest, then drew her gladius. Strictly speaking, fighting with two blades wasn’t very Roman, but Reyna had spent time with pirates. She’d picked up more than a few tricks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The earthen shells crumbled relatively easily, but they hit like sledgehammers. Reyna couldn’t afford to take even one blow; unlike Argentum, she wouldn’t survive getting her head knocked sideways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was fast enough to jump up and around the earthen punches, but she wasn’t sure if her body could take a direct hit like Argentum either. Her small body was still limited to the strength of a four-year-old normally, and so energizing her weapon was the only way she’d manage to find the strength to smash through the rocky golems. She was a tactician, but if her opponents were immune to poisons and hangings and laughing to death, she was left with physical Remnants, and even </span>
  <em>
    <span>then</span>
  </em>
  <span> these things were immune to getting their heads blown off and they didn’t have any blood to bleed to death. It was easiest to charge her weapon with energy rather than wasting time on tactics, but she could only sustain such a form for so long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico!” Reyna ducked between two earthen ghosts, allowing them to smash each other’s heads in. “Any time now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ground split open down the center of the courtyard. Dozens of skeletal soldiers clawed their way to the surface. Their shields looked like giant corroded pennies; their blades were more rust than metal - but Reyna had never been so relieved to see reinforcements.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Legion! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ad aciem!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The zombies responded, pushing through the earthen ghosts to form a battle line. Some fell, crushed by stone fists. Others managed to close ranks and raise their shields.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind her, Nico cursed. Reyna risked a backwards glance. The scepter of Diocletian was smoking in Nico’s hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fighting me!” he yelled. “I don’t think it likes summoning Romans to fight other Romans!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, Ancient Romans had spent at least half their time fighting each other, but that wasn’t the point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do…” Ane’s familiar started concentrating on the scepter, though it was hard to tell what it was doing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just secure Coach Hedge!” Reyna ordered. “Get ready to shadow-travel! We’ll buy you some-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico yelped, accompanied by a small squeak. The scepter of Diocletian exploded into pieces. Nico didn’t look hurt, but he stared at Reyna in shock. “I…I don’t know what happened. You’ve got a few minutes, tops, before your zombies disappear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My familiar has absorbed the scepter’s energies!” Ane announced, her breath coming in heavy pants. “We can sustain them for as long as they last! But she will only last as long as I do! And I will only have my boost for so long!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” The stuffed poodle held its paws up and began glowing with the same eerie light of the scepter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Legion!” Reyna shouted. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Orbem formate! Gladium signe!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The zombies circled the Athena Parthenos, their swords ready for close-quarters fighting. Ane was jumping from ghostly warrior to warrior, smashing them with her sword, but she was slowing down, taking longer breaks between each leap and her swings were losing power. Argentum dragged the unconscious Coach Hedge over to Nico, who was furiously strapping himself to the harness. Aurum stood guard, lunging at any earth ghosts who broke through the line.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna fought shoulder to shoulder with the dead legionnaires, sending her strength to their ranks. The earthen ghosts fell easily, but more kept rising from the ground in swirls of ash. The ones that Ane felled crumbled only to reform into another one down the line. Each time their stone firsts connected, another zombie went down, and Ane was losing her strength even faster from trying to sustain them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, the Athena Parthenos towered over the battle - regal, haughty, and unconcerned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A little help would be nice. Maybe a destructo-ray? Or some good old-fashioned smiting? The statue did nothing to help its saviors except radiate hatred, which seemed directed equally at Reyna and the attacking ghosts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You want to lug me to Long Island?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ the statue seemed to say. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Good luck with that, Roman scum.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s destiny: to die defending a passive-aggressive goddess. She kept fighting, extending more of her will to the undead troops.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In return, they bombarded her with their despair and resentment. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You fight for nothing. The empire is gone.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For Rome!” Reyna cried hoarsely. She slashed her gladius through one earthen ghost and stabbed her dagger in another’s chest. “Twelfth Legion Fulminata!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should we help?” I asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re almost ready,” Famine said. “We don’t have to assist.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane raised her blade and jumped up before throwing it down, sending a large wind bomb down to explode and blast the ghosts back as far as possible. The dead legion managed to get a foothold and created a defensive line.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico?!” Ane shouted. She fell to the ground, her blade’s energy fading and the blade sheathing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reyna, now!” Nico yelled. “We’re leaving!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico had harnessed himself to the Athena Parthenos. He held the unconscious Gleeson Hedge in his arms like a damsel in distress. Aurum and Argentum had disappeared - perhaps too badly damaged to continue fighting. Ane pushed herself to move, stumbling on her two feet and having to push off her hands a couple times to remain upwards. Her familiar jumped onto her as she approached.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna stumbled. A rock fist gave her a glancing blow to the rib cage, and her side erupted in pain. Her head swam; she tried to breathe, but it was like inhaling knives.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reyna!” Nico shouted again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Athena Parthenos flickered, about to disappear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>An earthen ghost swung at Reyna’s head. She managed to dodge, but the pain in her ribs almost made her black out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane heaved an exasperated sigh and turned back, grabbing Reyna’s hand and dragging her, ignoring the praetor’s potential pain from the motion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right,” Famine conceded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood from our hidden position, and I watched as large vines burst from the entire area. Nature began to attack the earthen shells, ripping them apart, replicating at terrifying speeds. Though the earthen creatures did manage to punch and destroy some of the vines restraining and tearing them apart, there were far too many of the vines who were far too versatile to be taken out by single physical hits, no matter how hard the hits were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I once again admired Famine’s strength. Apparently Famine was the most powerful person on the team besides Boss, and the first thing that had happened before they’d met her was do something bad that nearly made her our enemy. I wasn’t even sure if Boss had managed to earn her respect or if Boss had to tame Famine through a power struggle. In which case, I reaffirmed my decision to not cross Boss. Like, </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane let out a yelp as the vines burst free and started tearing the place up, but she pulled Reyna with a burst of adrenaline. She was quickly losing her energy. Nico stretched out his hand as he slipped into the shadows. With the last of their strength, the two girls leaped towards him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Away, Sandman,” Famine ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The regenerating earth monsters and the regenerating plants were at a stalemate conflict, since the two forces were never-ending if this kept up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Prepare yourself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed and hugged close to Famine, crossing my arms over my chest and squeezing my eyes shut. I never liked this mode of transportation, but at least it was effective. Famine summoned a giant flower to sprout beneath us, the petals closing around us and squeezing us tight. We were sucked into the ground.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo liked being in the wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had three more braces to attach and nobody else except maybe I was skinny enough to fit in the crawl space and still do the work properly (one of the many advantages of being scrawny, he said). Wedged between the layers of the hull with the plumbing and wiring, Leo could be alone with his thoughts. When he got frustrated, which happened about every five seconds, he could hit stuff with his mallet, and the other crew members would figure he was working, not throwing a tantrum.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One problem with his sanctuary: he only fit up to his waist. His butt and his legs were still on view to the general public, which made it hard for him to hide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leo!” Piper shouted. “We need you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Celestial bronze O-ring slipped out of Leo’s pliers and slid into the depths of the crawl space. Leo sighed. “Talk to the pants, Piper! ‘Cause the hands are busy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> talking to the pants. Meeting in the mess hall. We’re almost to Olympia.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, fine. I’ll be there in a sec.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you doing, anyway? You’ve been poking around inside the hull for days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo swept his flashlight across the Celestial bronze plates and pistons he’d been installing slowly but surely. “Routine maintenance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Silence. Piper was a little too good at knowing when he was lying. He was just lucky she couldn’t read his mind entirely. “Leo-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, while you’re out there, do me a favor. I got this itch right below my-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine, I’m leaving!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo allowed himself a couple more minutes to fasten the brace. His work wasn’t done, not by a long shot. But he was making progress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I passed Piper at the stairs, headed down to Leo and his project. Of course, he’d laid the groundwork for his secret project when he first built the Argo II, but he hadn’t told the others about it. He had barely been honest with </span>
  <em>
    <span>himself</span>
  </em>
  <span> about what he was doing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Nothing lasts forever,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ his dad once told him. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Not even the best machines.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Yeah, okay, maybe that was true, but Hephaestus had also said; ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Everything can be reused.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Leo intended to test that theory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a dangerous risk. If he failed, it would crush him. Not just emotionally. It would </span>
  <em>
    <span>physically</span>
  </em>
  <span> crush him. The thought made him claustrophobic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Only Audrey, Rei, Veon, and I had figured it out - having helped build the ship since we were on such a deadline at the time - and there was little the others could do to help besides just giving their support by hiding Leo’s project and helping him cover for it. I could tap into Leo’s brain and help him do the work twice as fast, but even then, Leo’s project was ambitious - and it didn’t help that the ship got attacked so often that his efforts were constantly being set back. Sometimes Veon offered his tar and used it to help keep the ship together whenever it was attacked, and while it </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a power from Gaea, Leo accepted the assistance - especially when Veon stared to get a true handle on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Since he returned from Tartarus, Veon’s tar power (coincidence?) had gotten more advanced and he was beginning to learn new techniques. His shadow-travel was faster and it drained him less, and for distances short enough that he could see his destination, he called it shadow-stepping. For battle, he could instantly burst into wisps of shadows and teleport up and around his opponents, appearing with his weapon primed once more - a large, dark blade with a serrated edge and swirling red accents that whispered with the souls and victims of Tartarus. Veon still used his lance, but he transformed it into multiple shapes and weapons now, and he didn’t seem to need it for flying anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei and I always accompanied him on guard duty, sometimes Audrey too, but that was the extent. His dark powers almost seemed to be growing out of control, and we needed to hide his condition from the others to make sure there weren’t any more worries during an already stressful trip. It was bad enough that the Primordials sometimes went off and did things whenever they wanted without our knowledge sometimes, but if Veon started losing it more and more often, there was no telling when he could snap - and at the worst possible times. So far, he seemed to be handling himself, and at times he even felt normal. Other times, I could tell the weight on his shoulders was getting to him. We did the best we could to comfort him; </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> did the best I could to calm the storm that was raging throughout all of us on the ship.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could help stabilize Veon’s human side very well, actually, but sometimes that brought on a lot of existential guilt and horror that was hard to counter. The only one who was truly effective at calming him down was Rei. She played a drakon-bone violin to sooth not only him but the rest of the crew. Sometimes, if there was an attack, her melody turned fast and aggressive. She could dance around a horde of monsters, striking with the sharp tip of her reinforced violin bow and using her music to create madness and even a little bit of magic. She was the most casual fighter-musician you’d ever see. She sometimes came to me to help keep her mental state stable, but she was the only one who could truly help Veon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I went to Leo’s cabin. Well, </span>
  <em>
    <span>technically</span>
  </em>
  <span> it was his cabin, but he didn’t sleep there. The mattress was littered with wires, nails, and the guts of several disassembled bronze machines. His three massive rolling tool cabinets - Chico, Harpo, and Groucho - took up most of his room. Dozens of power tools hung on the walls, the worktable was piled with photocopied blueprints from </span>
  <em>
    <span>On Spheres</span>
  </em>
  <span> - the forgotten Archimedes text Leo had liberated from an underground workshop in Rome. Even if he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to sleep in his cabin, it would’ve been too cramped and dangerous. He preferred to bed down in the engine room, where the constant hum of machinery helped him fall asleep. Besides, ever since his time on the island of Ogygia, he had become fond of camping out. A bedroll on the floor was all he needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze had told me of the events that went down on Ogygia, and it wasn’t hard to discern the details just by being </span>
  <em>
    <span>near</span>
  </em>
  <span> Leo and his aching heart.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Needless to say, his cabin was only for storage…and for working on his most difficult projects. In Groucho’s middle drawer - locked with a key only Leo possessed - two precious objects were held: a bronze astrolabe he’d picked up in Bologna, and a fist-sized chunk of crystal from Ogygia. Leo hadn’t figured out how to put the two things together yet, and I knew it was driving him crazy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d hoped to get some answers when we visited Ithaca - after all, it was the home of Odysseus, the dude who had constructed the astrolabe. But those ruins hadn’t helped any answers for him - just a bunch of ill-tempered ghouls and ghosts. Anyway, Odysseus never got the astrolabe to work. He hadn’t had a crystal to use as a homing beacon. Leo did. He would have to succeed where the cleverest demigod of all time had failed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just Leo’s luck. A super-hot immortal girl was waiting for him on Ogygia, but he couldn’t figure out how to wire a stupid chunk of rock into the three-thousand-year-old navigation device. Some problems even duct tape couldn’t solve.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the bulletin board above his worktable, two pictures hung side-by-side. The first was the old crayon drawing he’d made when he was seven years old - a diagram of a flying ship he’d seen in his dreams. The second was a charcoal sketch Hazel had recently made for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel Levesque sure was something. As soon as Leo rejoined the crew in Malta, she’d known right away that Leo was hurting inside, just from her…Hazel-ness. The first chance she got, after all that mess in the House of Hades, she’d grabbed me, marched into Leo’s cabin, and said, “Spill. If you lie, Emily will tell me the </span>
  <em>
    <span>whole</span>
  </em>
  <span> story.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel was a good listener. Leo told her the whole story. Later that evening, Hazel came back with her sketchpad and her charcoal pencils. “Describe her,” she insisted. “Every detail.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt a little weird, helping Hazel make a portrait of Calypso - as if he were talking to a police artist: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes, officer, that’s the girl who stole my heart!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Sounded like a freaking country song. But describing Calypso had been easy. Leo couldn’t close his eyes without seeing her. Now, her likeness gazed back at him from the bulletin board - her almost-shaped eyes, her pouty lips, her long straight hair swept over one shoulder of her sleeveless dress. He could almost smell her cinnamon fragrance. Her knit brow and the downward turn of her mouth seemed to say: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Leo Valdez, you are so full of it.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Leo loved that woman, and it made me smile every time I felt him reminisce about her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo had pinned her portrait next to the drawing of the Argo II to remind himself that sometimes visions </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> come true. As a little kid, he’d dreamed about a flying ship. Eventually he built it. Now he would build a way to get back to Calypso.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leo.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hum of the ship’s engines changed to a lower pitch. Over the cabin loudspeaker, Festus’s voice creaked and squeaked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Leo sighed. “You both don’t have to go ganging up on me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship was descending, which meant Leo’s projects would have to wait.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I turned and headed down the hall and then down to the stables where we had made a makeshift prison.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sit tight, Sunshine,” Leo muttered quietly to Calypso’s picture. “I’ll get back to you, just like I promised.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo could imagine her response: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>I am </span>
  </em>
  <span>not</span>
  <em>
    <span> waiting for you, Leo Valdez. I am </span>
  </em>
  <span>not</span>
  <em>
    <span> in love with you. And I certainly don’t need your foolish promises!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thought made him smile. He slipped his keys back into his tool belt and headed for the mess hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I descended down the stairs and entered the stables. It was pretty empty, considering most of the magical steeds that belonged to the team didn’t like being cooped up. Arion, Hazel’s steed was the fastest horse in the world; Zoltan, Veon’s steed, was Arion’s brother and a powerful magic horse that had a myriad of tricks; Tempest and Vront</span>
  <span>í</span>
  <span>, Jason and Rei’s steeds respectively; were storm spirits they had tamed; Blackjack was Percy’s pegasus, who was amazing, and Ariel was Audrey’s steed, a gift from their father who shared her ability set to transform into sentient water and even teleport. </span>
  <em>
    <span>None</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them liked being cooped up. Like, all of those horses in one set of stables would probably be a recipe for disaster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As such, the stables were very empty, and a perfect place for us to store a prisoner. Leo had manufactured some restraining devices in case we had another Eidolon situation or some other possessions where we needed to contain someone. Transforming one of the empty stables into a prison wasn’t that difficult.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She called herself Pain. She had dark hair braided into two tails that hung in front of either shoulder and a black beanie with cat ears on her head. She was dressed mostly in black with a dark purple shirt, fingerless gloves, black nails, and multiple piercings along her body - on her eyebrow, nose, lip, chin, many earrings, her tongue, and her belly-button. She had sharp bracelets that chafed against her skin, a spiked choker, light ballet shoes that didn’t seem suited to any sort of travel, leggings that were torn in multiple places like she’d been cut through them with a blade, and a long-sleeve black jacket over her dark purple t-shirt. Her complexion was pale, her eyeliner was black, her eyeshadow was a deep mauve to match her shirt, and her lipstick was black. Most of her piercings were silver rings. She was the epitome of a modern-day goth teenager - which was odd for a demigod to say the least. Kaze and Azrael wanted to talk about her, but I wanted to speak to her first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Pain had been left by the others, she had tried to cut her own achilles tendons as I charged at her. Whenever she had planned, it had fired a shockwave at both of us and she had been left behind by her team, which I found highly suspicious. Pain </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be here, that was obvious enough. She knew there was a risk, but she had nothing to lose. She didn’t seem to have a grasp at the possible danger she could be in as our prisoner - but perhaps that was because she knew we wouldn’t kill or harm her. If anything, she was eager to see what we did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pulled up a chair in front of her makeshift cell and sat down. She was sitting against the wall, playing with one of her earrings that she’d removed. Her ADHD was showing as she focused on the small object trying to distract herself from her boredom and keep her hands busy. I made a mental note to maybe ask Leo for a Rubik’s cube for her to play with. Even </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> couldn’t be cruel enough to leave an ADHD demigod in a boring cell with nothing to do for however long we were traveling. Kicking her off the ship would be an ideal course of action, but we needed answers about who her team was and what they wanted, and Pain seemed eager to </span>
  <em>
    <span>provide</span>
  </em>
  <span> answers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Finally!</span>
  </em>
  <span> What took you so long?” she sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, but I’m here now. The others are having breakfast, and I was wondering if you had any allergies.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are those? I don’t have alligators.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Allergies. You know - well, I guess you </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>. If you eat something like nuts for example and your body has a bad reaction to it. Most of the time it’s intense swelling, and if you eat something you’re allergic to, it can end up suffocating you if your throat swells too much.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds nice. But no, I’ve never had that happen to me before. And I’ve eaten things like walnuts and peanuts before without incident.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wondered why she hadn’t heard of allergies. I suppose it just hadn’t come up in her life before, but she looked as old as I was, maybe older. I could tell she was being honest, and she was eager to get questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pulled out one of the magic plates from the mess hall from my bag. “Ever heard of waffles?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She scoffed. “Of </span>
  <em>
    <span>course</span>
  </em>
  <span> I have. I’m not an idiot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want blueberry, chocolate chip, or regular waffles?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Blueberry. Nothing on it, please.” I summoned a small stack of them on the plate and set the plate in front of the bars of her cell. “Take all you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reached her hand through and took a small handful. “This a bribe to get me talking?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I can tell you’re pretty open already. I just figured that you’d be hungry. We’re not gonna starve you, after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took a bite of her waffle without protest - no worries about poison or spells laced into it. “Hunger pains don’t bother me,” she said casually. “I’ve nearly starved to death dozens of times without realizing it. Food is…okay, I guess, but I’ve never really had that rush of filling an empty stomach.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t feel any pain then.” I’d sensed it from her for a while, but it was hard to tell when she’d been unconscious. Now that she was awake, she confirmed it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain shrugged. “Nope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s ironic, considering your name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She finished a waffle. “Well, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> feel pain if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to. But I was born unable to feel it until I got a handle on my powers. I can still bleed, but I can turn my pain onto others.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That explains the achilles heel slicing you were doing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “Good way to get people running at you to collapse. Doesn’t always stop them, but the average joe doesn’t expect it and even powering through the pain is hard for the toughest of warriors.” She moved her hand to her neck, tracing the vein running down the left side. “Jugular is also good. Depending on how hard you cut, the faster they bleed out. Not as dramatic as the back of the ankle though. Certainly painful, but the jugular quickly leaves them losing blood to their brain and they most likely pass out choking on their own blood. Takes a while for them to die, but they aren’t aware of most of it at a certain point. If you cut into the throat as well and cause them to also choke on their own blood, that also helps. It’s quick and efficient, but not as amusing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve done lots of thinking about how to kill someone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And to torture them. But I don’t always have to do the work myself. I can take the damage that one has inflicted upon </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span> and return it back to them. The man who gave me my piercings, for example. Could riddle him with holes in a moment’s notice. Those who have ever wielded a firearm, I can riddle them with every bullet they’ve ever struck someone else with. I can return curses, poisons, physical blows, etc., no matter how long ago it happened.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And yet you haven’t done anything to anyone on this ship. I know that you </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Our prison restrains your physical body, and your powers are somewhat held in check, but it’s nothing advanced.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “Yeah. Boss said not to harm any of you, not until you’ve chosen your side.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>All</span>
  </em>
  <span> of us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The ones we show interest in. Death and Ventus, of course, but any of you would work. Especially you. You’re a special character that none of us can truly grasp. I didn’t know what would happen if I tried using my power on you, but its backfire seemed to be a result of immortality.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “I felt something on my ankle, but it was more a cramp than an actual piercing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re still walking like normal, so I guess the effect was entirely phantom pain for you. You can still be harmed </span>
  <em>
    <span>internally</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but for the most part your skin, muscles, bones, and organs are all immune to any tearing and your healing rate is faster than anything normal. But you’ve done a lot of damage to others. Mostly monsters, of course. But you don’t have much harm in you. You use your voice most of the time, and you know basic punching and kicking, of course. You’re a medic, and a medic could be useful. It’d save </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> the trouble of having to take wounds off of people and implant them onto something else. You also have a Fire of Life, which interests me greatly - along with my friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps I’d consider your team, </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> you told me more about them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain smiled, and I could see a sadistic side within her. She was fiercely loyal to her team, I could sense that without even delving into her mind. She liked being able to feel pain and inflicting it on others made her relax. She had a series of scars underneath her clothing, and I could see that her fingers had been broken multiple times but she could repair any of the damage. She had markings, but otherwise her body was in perfect condition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Depends on what you want to know.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>All of the other demigods were eating breakfast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once upon a time, we might have worried about all of us being together belowdecks with nobody at the helm, but ever since Piper and I had woken up Festus with the Fire of Life and Piper’s strong charmspeak, the dragon figurehead had been more than capable of running the Argo II by himself. Festus could navigate, check the radar, make a blueberry smoothie, and spew white-hot jets of fire at invaders - simultaneously - without even blowing a circuit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides, we had Buford the Wonder Table as backup. After Coach Hedge left on his shadow-travel expedition, Leo had decided that his three-legged table could do just as good a job as our “adult chaperone.” He had laminated Buford’s tabletop with a magic scroll that projected a pint-sized holographic simulation of Coach Hedge. Mini-Hedge would stomp around on Buford’s top, randomly saying things like “CUT THAT OUT!” “I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” and the ever-popular “PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today, Buford was manning the helm. If Festus’s flames didn’t scare away monsters, Buford’s holographic Hedge definitely would.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy was eating a huge stack of blue pancakes while Annabeth chided him for pouring on too much syrup.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re drowning them!” she complained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, I’m a Poseidon kid,” he said. “I can’t drown. And neither can my pancakes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To their left, Frank and Hazel used their cereal bowls to flatten out a map of Greece. They looked over it, their heads close together. Every once in a while Frank’s hand would cover Hazel’s, just sweet and natural like they were an old married couple, and Hazel didn’t even look flustered, which was real progress for a girl from the 1940s. Until recently, if somebody said, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Gosh darn</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ she would nearly faint.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the head of the table, Jason sat uncomfortably with his T-shirt rolled up to his rib cage as Nurse Piper changed his bandages.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold still,” she said. “I know it hurts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just cold,” he insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could hear the pain in his voice. I decided that was my first stop as I joined them and started pouring my flames into Jason’s injury. That stupid gladius blade had pierced him all the way through. The entrance wound on his back was an ugly shade of purple, and it steamed. Whenever I gave him a surge of healing fire, his injury returned to a normal shade and though the wound didn’t fully closed, it looked far better. Unfortunately, the wound always returned, and it was all I could do to make sure that it didn’t spread to the rest of Jason’s body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper tried to stay positive, but I knew how worried she was. Ambrosia, nectar, and mortal medicine could only help so much, and even my bursts of enchanted flames wouldn’t stop the injury entirely. A deep cut from Celestial bronze or Imperial gold could literally dissolve a demigod’s essence from the inside out. It was the celestial blood - or more widely, just the supernatural blood in general - within him that was vulnerable, and it was his human part that even allowed him to not crumble to dust like the monsters. The enchanted metals could eat away at a soul, and for deities and monsters we called it Essence, the very force that made up their entire existence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael had once destroyed the Essence of the goddess Khione, and he explained that it was basically a soul, but instead of it being within a physical shell and allowed to expand based on its environment, a deity’s Essence made up their body as well. They didn’t change and didn’t react to their environments and adapt. Think of it like the difference between humans being made of flesh and muscles and bones while gods are just balls of energy in the shape of humans - they represented abstract concepts, and that’s what made them different from humanity. Gods could teleport, their true forms were like literal supernovas, and they were tied to whatever they represented - and whatever humans </span>
  <em>
    <span>believed</span>
  </em>
  <span> they represented (since the gods are bound by their believers, hence the conflict between the Greeks and Romans tearing the gods between their two forms apart).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason might get better. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>claimed</span>
  </em>
  <span> he felt better, but Piper wasn’t sure, and Leo had his doubts as well. If Jason were a metal automaton, at least then Leo would have some idea of how to help his friend, but with humans…Leo felt helpless. They broke </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> too easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze and Azrael were sitting beside each other. Kaze was fussing over Azrael’s rope burns, demanding Azrael’s story of what had happened in their native tongues and translating probably using the Veil. Kaze’s robotic cat Neko was pawing at Azrael’s hand, clasped within Kaze’s as they spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Primordial duo was sitting in the corner of the room, Veon lying with his eyes closed on Rei’s lap while she and Audrey talked. I could tell Veon wasn’t sleeping, but he was meditating. He was getting good at that, and it helped him stabilize his mind all on his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately, this isn’t Avatar. I can’t make your water have healing properties to anyone but descendants of water deities. There are more abilities you </span>
  <em>
    <span>may</span>
  </em>
  <span> be able to unlock, but that’s up to you.” Rei tapped her forehead. “Primordial rule is that I can’t make your lives any easier. I can fulfill prophecies and help you when you’re struggling, but I can’t do everything for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like all the divine intervention in the stories like the Odyssey?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “Gods can make your guys’ lives worse, and others can help you when you’re really struggling, but other times there’s no intervening. Stretching your powerset to something that’s simply impractical - even if it made sense in a cartoon - is within my power, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> within my power, you know?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey sighed. “Yeah, I get it. I just wish I could help Jason more.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can help him by keeping his spirits up. Without the Primordial power, I can try healing him, but I’ll face the same road-block as Emily does when she heals him with her fire: this wound touches his soul, and only </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> can fight it off. Keeping spirits high will help most.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei seemed to be a very fast learner when it came to controlling the two deities within her. She could switch their influence on and off for the most part, but I knew that sometimes they took over without her consent - mostly when she was asleep or knocked out. They didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> come out, and sometimes it was limited to just a more serious and ethereal shift in her tone, but for the most part she had somehow managed to tame two Primordial entities within her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Or maybe that’s what they </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> us to believe. She warned us to be wary of her at all times. Things looked calm on the surface, but Rei knew that her influence on the two Primordials was built to enhance and hone their abilities, leaving open the possibility that they were more powerful than they let on. Veon had the opposite effect when he had once held the two Primordials, relaxing and canceling out their power to the point that Tartarus nearly subjugated them. Which meant that right now, he made a perfect prison for Tartarus, weakening the consciousness that was trapped within Veon. Though Rei had saved Veon for love, she voiced to me her concerns that the Primordials </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> her to make that choice so that they could punish Tartarus in Veon’s body. On the bright side, Veon even seemed to relax the Primordials within Rei as she did the same for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I went over and joined them, telling them about my interview with Pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze said he saw someone,” Rei said. She closed her eyes pensively. “Someone familiar. I don’t like this group, and I haven’t even been formally introduced.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pain is a daughter of the revenge goddess Nemesis, a ‘Freebee,’ as she puts it,” I reported. “Among other things, she mentioned Leo. She recited, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You will not find a place among your brethren. You will always be the seventh wheel.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The words Nemesis said to Leo,” Rei remembered. She glanced over at the other demigods of the prophecy - three couples, all focused on each other. Even Rei and Veon were a pair, Azrael and Kaze were a duo, and Audrey and I were pretty much attached to the Primordials trying to keep them sane. All of us had our place, but Leo…Leo moved to sit on his own. “Nemesis is not wrong about these things, and he </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> break open her fortune cookie and accept the price. Pain sensing her mother’s influence on Leo…you said she was from the Wards?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei’s eyes grew dark, her vision clouded with the past.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Assuming Leo lives long enough, assuming his crazy plan works, his destiny is with somebody else, on an island that no man has ever found twice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced over at Leo, who was making a bee-line for the brownies - the last one - made from a special sea salt recipe we’d picked up from Aphros the fish centaur (Ichthyocentaurs) at the bottom of the Atlantic. “What’s up guys? Aw, </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes</span>
  </em>
  <span> to brownies!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo knew his fate and he didn’t bother trying to fight it. But for now, the best he could do was to follow the old rule: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Keeping moving</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ Don’t get bogged down. Don’t think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when you don’t feel like it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Especially</span>
  </em>
  <span> when you don’t feel like it. It was a feeling that Leo didn’t have exclusively - we all felt like that at one point or another, even now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The intercom crackled. Buford’s Mini-Hedge yelled over the speakers, “PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone jumped, even Rei and Veon. Hazel ended up five feet away from Frank; Percy spilled syrup in his orange juice; Jason awkwardly wriggled back into his T-shirt; Frank turned into a bulldog; Kaze pulled Azrael into a defensive embrace while Neko transformed into a little robot muttering, “Kill. Kill. Kill.” and shooting off a little laser; Audrey caused a pitcher of water to shoot up like a geyser; Veon’s eyes snapped open, glaring at the intercom speakers; Rei and I flinched and glanced around at the chaos.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper glared at Leo. “I thought you were getting rid of that stupid hologram.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Buford’s just saying good morning. He loves his hologram! Besides, we all miss the coach. And Frank makes a cute bulldog.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank morphed back into a burly, grumpy Chinese Canadian dude. “Just sit down, Leo. We’ve got stuff to talk about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stuffs,” Kaze agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo squeezed between Jason and Hazel. He figured they were the least likely to smack him if he made bad jokes. He took a bite of his brownie and grabbed a pack of Italian junk food - Fonzies - to round out his balanced breakfast. He’d become kinda addicted to the things since buying some in Bologna. They were cheesy and corny - two of his favorite qualities.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…” Jason winced as he leaned forward. “We’re going to stay airborne and drop anchor as close as we can to Olympia. It’s farther inland than I’d like - about five miles - but we don’t have much choice. According to Juno, we have to find the goddess of victory and, um…subdue her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Uncomfortable silence around the table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With the new drapes covering the holographic walls, the mess hall was darker and gloomier than it should’ve been, but that couldn’t be helped. Ever since the Kerkopes dwarf twins had short-circuited the walls, the real-time video feed from Camp Half-Blood often fuzzed out, changing into playback of extreme dwarf close-ups - red whiskers, nostrils, and bad dental work. It wasn’t helpful when you were trying to eat or have a serious conversation about the fate of the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy sipped his syrup-flavored orange juice. He seemed to find it okay. “I’m cool with fighting the occasional goddess, but isn’t Nike one of the </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span> ones? I mean, personally, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>like</span>
  </em>
  <span> victory. I can’t get enough of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth drummed her fingers on the table. “It </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> seem strange. I understand why Nike would be in Olympia - home of the Olympics and all that. The contestants sacrificed to her. Greeks and Romans worshipped her there for, like, twelve hundred years, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Almost to the end of the Roman Empire,” Frank agreed. “Romans called her </span>
  <em>
    <span>Victoria</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but same difference. Everybody loved her - who </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> like to win? Not sure why we would have to subdue her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Antinous said that ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Victory runs rampant in Olympia</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’” I remembered. “Juno warned us that we could never heal the rift between the Greeks and Romans unless we defeated victory.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do we defeat victory?” Piper wondered. “Sounds like one of those impossible riddles.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like making stones fly,” Leo said, “or eating only one Fonzie.” He popped a handful into his mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel wrinkled her nose. “That stuff is going to kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You kidding? So many preservatives in these things, I’ll live forever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Defeating victory might be as simple as literally taking on Nike and defeating her,” Audrey pointed out. “And not kill her, of course - that’d be a bad idea and I’m not even sure if we could pull that off. But Leo, you have plenty of capturing Celestial bronze things like nets, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason frowned. A wisp of steam curled from the wound under his shirt. “Capturing a demigod is one thing. Capturing Victoria - </span>
  <em>
    <span>victory itself?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Capturing a god isn’t that hard,” Veon pointed out. Rei was brushing her hands through his hair absentmindedly. “It just takes some Celestial bronze, and once a god is captured they’re pretty much stuck until they’re released. Once trapped, a god’s power is useless. Remember when Hera was captured by Hephaestus in a golden chair? She was reduced to begging him to set her free and apologizing for throwing him off Olympus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Speaking of Hera…” Audrey said. “We saw those guys at Ithaca, those demigods…they took Hera.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Captured her easily,” Kaze agreed. Azrael nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But how was that </span>
  <em>
    <span>possible?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Hazel asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only one of them actually did the capturing,” Piper recalled. “The one they called ‘Forge.’ He was using this giant hammer - threw a net on Hera to first restrain her, and then by hitting the net with his hammer it reshaped itself into a metal box that then shrunk down to the size of a Rubik’s cube.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was a child of Hephaestus,” Azrael announced. “Special case. They all were. I saw it through the Veil.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s cool and all, but what’s that mean?” Leo asked. “I'm a Hephaestus kid here, but I’m not going around capturing gods on the reg.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze picked up a grape from his plate. “They are some of the most dangerous demigods in existence, born and raised to be weapons, stripped of their free will and abused for their power.” He crushed the grape between his fingers. “Those demigods were from the Wards.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Talking History and Plans for the Future</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hmmm, this turned into more exposition than I'd planned, but hey, I need to get the info out there. This is a really long chapter; the notes make it way too long, but the actual story part itself isn't long enough for me to have split it into multiple chapters, so meh.</p><p>THE FIRST PART OF THIS CHAPTER IS LITERALLY A RESPONSE TO A REVIEW THAT GOT TOO LONG I'M SORRY.</p><p>Also I'm working on categorizing information about the Ward children since it was asked for. There are some spoilers, I guess, but it's more exposition than anything else, and it's something to read if anyone's interested, though it can be skipped. I'm about halfway through it right now, so it should be out by the next chapter and it'll be labeled for reference if you need to go look someone up. Should I put it in a separate story so I can make each chapter each person, or should I put it as a chapter in this story as one big list?</p><p>To those who are not interested, you may skip the comment :) Most of it is reiterating information from the former stories (and yes, I will make actual summaries, just give me some time!)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Arienne: First off, I'm glad that you enjoy this story so much that you're ready to ask questions. Your reading this is more viewership than I've actually ever had (why do people not comment? I get wanting to wait till you get to the end of the current updates to comment, but why some just don't comment at all when they follow and like? I usually like to find something small to cheer on every few chapters…anyway I rant). Especially during the Son of Neptune, the story just wasn't that interesting (and I also took a giant hiatus because school and depression were smacking me in the face) - and quite honestly that's the one story that I don't go back to for reference :)</strong>
  <br/>
  <strong>I suppose updating this story will attract attention, but I do my writing just to slap it in the internet and just let whoever finds it read it; my goal was never popularity, but it seriously warms my heart. BTW why would anyone ship that?</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>But I'm assuming you're meaning the Ward kids specifically, because in my former stories I've explained why my team of five, in particular, are built stronger than The Seven but they definitely cannot replace The Seven by any means. The prophecies all speak about the seven demigods, and they are the only ones who can finish their quest. Rei and Veon in particular were destined to host the Primordial power.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Even without her Primordials, Rei, specifically, is born very uniquely because of her mother - a goddess born of limit breaks (when a burst of desperation, love, duty, etc. cause someone to gain a burst of strength in their darkest hour). She was captured by the Wards around age 4, and after learning that every time she was killed she generated a large surge of energy that lasted for a few months at a time, fully healing her to the point that it temporarily stopped her aging process, they proceeded to kill her over and over and over and over to try and find the upper ends of her power and tap into her power like a battery (each death ended up splitting her soul to create Ane's many Remnants). Yes she is just a legacy of Apollo - her father being a half-blood of Apollo - her mother's blessing/curse gave her a power boost every single time she was killed. She's escaped and been captured multiple times throughout her life, so some of her deaths are also mundane (she once tripped and hit her head on some stone stairs and also ate some poisonous berries) but overall, on her own, Rei is far more powerful than a normal demigod at the cost of her having a lot of emotional and mental scars. When it comes to her mother, a burst of power or emotion that saves a life in desperation can unlock new abilities, meaning Rei has incidentally unlocked any power that's in her genes regardless of how recessive and filtered it is through the generations.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>But ignoring Rei's natural abilities, her mother was a worthy host of the Primordials, and so is she - though she is far more fallible, being partially human. Both she and Veon were destined to be hosts of the Primordials, though this was not how they expected to end up. Veon is very different from Rei on purpose, having an innocence that Rei lost a long time ago, but because Rei was trying to save Veon from a fate like hers, they ended up where they are today.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>As for Audrey, she is brought into this situation as a guardian of the two Primordial Hosts - she is in charge of being human and keeping these two in check. She has an inferiority fear; she's in charge of Primordials who she can't be sure that any of their actions are deliberate, if they're dormant or influencing their hosts, or even if the Primordials are doing anything dangerous to them and their group. With Rei, their former leader, now possessed and possibly not in control of her actions, Audrey is the established human leader of a team that is in charge of making sure the Seven are able to save the world properly. Also, Audrey is powerful enough to debilitate Rei and Veon if every they need to be restrained. Their bodies are human, Audrey can puppet a human body, and she herself is very hard to kill. She is the physical force in charge of keeping their bodies in check.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Emily, meanwhile, is in charge of keeping their emotional and mental states in check. Her powers over reading and influencing minds and emotions are used to keep a balance between human and god within her friends - and that's not an easy job for her. She can pull at the consciousnesses of the Primordials and eject them, switch them, and shut them down temporarily if need be.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Kaze is a Reanimation built by Gaea, having died a long time ago by Rei's hands in an attempt to break her from everything she loved to be a pure vessel for a Primordial. Kaze's soul was broken directly by the powers of a Primordial, therefore he was sent to Asphodel without his memories erased because there simply wasn't enough of him left to erase. Because of his mother's hatred of Hermes for abandoning her once she was pregnant as well as Kaze's hatred of deities that force his sister to do things because she believes its right, he was an easy target for Gaea to revive in the name of hating the gods. At first, he was just given new speed, but once Gaea mastered the technique of making powerful Reanimations through Kaze's mother Tsuchi and Rei's father Kandai, Kaze was due for the upgrade as well. This process suppresses his soul to make him a being living on pure hatred, but Azrael's powers allow Kaze to regain his personality.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Azrael's parents are Hannah and Ithuriel, daughter of Hephaestus and son of Ares, best friends of Kandai. When Rei's mother was coming to the human world, she needed a human host, but in gaining one, she allowed Hannah and Ithuriel to die when they should not have, pissing off Thanatos who ended up making them Reapers to help him with soul-collecting duties because honestly he doesn't know what to do with them. Azrael was born a Reaper - born of non-dead, not alive parents, and so to reconcile his existence, Thanatos allows him to live a life until he dies regularly before he will become a full Reaper. He has power over the Veil, a layer of reality where souls are collected by Reapers. He is able to affect souls of the dead and therefore help Kaze.</strong>
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  <strong>These five characters are not part of the Seven, they are powerful in their own right, and their job is to keep the prophecies on track. The Primordials are a layer of this quest that was not in the original, and with them come demigods built to contain the danger and oppose it. In terms of the Primordials' actual personalities, they are up to things that their hosts may not approve of. I'll just say that the Patron of the Ward kids was awakened by the Primordials specifically, and if you know a bit of the Greek creation myth, you might be able to know who it is.</strong>
</p><hr/><p>First Person: Rei</p><p>Leo blinked. “Uh…cool. <em> Still </em> not clearing anything up…”</p><p>“The Wards are human government facilities dedicated to capturing and creating new demigod weapons,” Azrael said. “There are lab-born kids - LKs - and there are Freebies, demigods born outside of the system and taken to the Wards to be subjugated by force.”</p><p>“These are <em> human </em> facilities…?” Annabeth repeated.</p><p>Kaze nodded. “As Rome fell and Christianity began to take over the European countries, Greek and Roman gods and all the other pagans were losing their power and influence. It obviously didn’t stop them from existing, but they all slowly began to fade into obscurity. Greedy humans found out about the metals of the gods and slowly began to figure out how to use it to their advantage to drive out pagan worshipers and descendants of pagan gods. By the time the Renaissance era came around, humans began openly researching the science behind the supernatural, and as such the efforts to create weapons and tools to fight those of godly descent advanced significantly. Research was already happening in secret, but once people started renouncing Christianity after the Bubonic Plague, that’s when science and magic really took off. And that’s when the Wards began to take off as an actual faction. What was once a small, underground secret operation to snuff out any unfortunate demigods or supernatural creatures that came their way became an entire movement to capture and rehabilitate demigods to protect human society.”</p><p>“‘<em> Protecting society </em>’ is the lie that built the foundations of an organization built to torture, abuse, physically and mentally break, and slaughter demigods,” I continued. “They capture any demigods that come their way - sometimes stealing them from lives at camps like Half-Blood and Jupiter, and sometimes they work their way around the government and legally bind people who just wanted to live out their lives in peace. Individuals whose family lines have gone rogue…if they’re found out, they’re done for. They become fugitives. Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter themselves are safe, but going out on a mission or quest into a public domain? It’s always a risk. Back in the day, there was literally nothing we could do. If we were found, we were taken. Freelance demigods could tell you about them - there’s no way a freelance demigod could live without at least knowing to look out for the Wards.”</p><p>“We rescued Azrael from a Ward,” Emily recalled.</p><p>Azrael nodded. “The three of us, we are Freebies. We had lives before we were taken. It is scary, it is terrifying. Running is impossible.”</p><p>“Those men who were chasing us…” Emily closed her eyes and dug into her memory. “I used charmspeak but they put down their visors and suddenly it didn’t affect them.”</p><p>“They possess technology specifically designed to resist the power of the gods. How do you think they subjugate dozens of demigods at a time - even ones who have grown and been trained at a place as demanding as Camp Jupiter? Freelancers who have adapted to a life without sanctuary, constantly being hunted by monsters.”</p><p>Hazel shivered. “That sounds terrible. To think they even existed back in <em> my </em> time.”</p><p>“My grandmother and my mom must’ve known,” Frank muttered. “I suppose there were enough threats we were running from, so it just faded in with the rest. We <em> did </em> live in a pretty secluded place.”</p><p>“A <em> lot </em> of us must’ve come close to being taken there,” Piper realized.</p><p>“Your father’s fame might’ve kept them from taking <em> you </em> , Piper,” I speculated. “And since Leo did so much orphanage hopping, I’d wager that was why <em> he </em> lasted as long as he did. It especially helped if your parents or adopted parents didn’t know or didn’t believe you were of celestial blood. Either way, in all cases, the Wards have less influence in the United States as they do here in the European countries where the Wards originated.”</p><p>“Guess the Ancient Lands were dangerous both because of the monsters <em> and </em> because of the Wards,” Audrey muttered.</p><p>“They imprison deities too,” Kaze continued. “Mostly minor deities, but deities nonetheless. Things like nature spirits are sometimes captured for study, but for the most part they are left alone.”</p><p>“Once, we were saved by some faeries,” I remembered. “We were lucky. They threatened to wreak havoc upon the world - they have numbers all across the planet; they can create every type of natural disaster at once at every major city all at once. They could, quite literally, set off an apocalypse. That got our pursuers to back off, but I could tell they weren’t happy about it. Unfortunately, there are still some forces in this world too big and powerful to comprehend.”</p><p>“But these guys who captured Hera…?” Piper said uncertainly.</p><p>“They were special cases. Most demigods in the Ward system are not allowed the freedom to roam about as agents without supervision. We’re considered pets to them. High maintenance, powerful, only bring us out when they need us, and always fully restrained so that we only use our powers as they want us to. Then, we get put back in storage, constantly training to the point of exhaustion and pushed to our limits to grow stronger. But <em> these </em> people…it seems as though they’ve been allowed to roam as free agents. Did you see their tattoos, Azrael?”</p><p>He nodded. “While I was held hostage.”</p><p>“Tattoos?” Percy asked. “Like…SPQR?” he asked hopefully.</p><p>Azrael turned around and brushed his hair out of the way to reveal the back of his neck. Some of them leaned in to see. Along with some German, there was the line ‘<em> S.C.W.K - 0009 - ZRL </em>’ and then a barcode.</p><p>“Special Case, Ward K, number 9, Azrael,” Kaze recited. “No last name. The three of us are ‘Special Case,’ but Rei and I are from Ward X.” He pointed to himself. “12.” He pointed to me. “13.”</p><p>“You said you saw at least one of their tattoos?” I asked again.</p><p>Azrael turned to face the others again, letting his hair fall over the back of his neck.</p><p>“Special Case, Facility B, 07, <em> Boss </em> .<br/>“Special Case, Facility E, 25, <em> Quake </em> .<br/>“Special Case, Facility T, 41, <em> Pestilence </em> .<br/>“Special Case, Facility O, 18, <em> Hatter </em> .<br/>“Special Case, Facility K, 32, <em> Forge </em> .<br/>“Special Case, Facility P, 79, <em> Mirage </em> .”<br/>Azrael paused for only a moment. “Special Case, Facility W, 68, <em> Famine </em>.”</p><p>“And the girl we caught is Special Case, Facility N, 93, Pain,” Emily recalled. “She showed me her tattoo.”</p><p>“All special cases, but instead of listing their Ward, they list their <em> Facility </em>,” Annabeth noted.</p><p>“Facility means they are upgraded from a normal Ward to a location specifically tasked with equipping them as weapons,” Azrael explained. “Wards are built like barracks, but on lockdown. Multiple kids, both Freebies and LKs mixed, most of them being raised like an orphanage but with a strict regiment and training hours and doctor’s appointments. They break us and/or raise us to love or at least accept them and our inevitable fates. Facilities are where we truly become weapons. Most of the time, LKs are sent to Facilities because they are specifically bred as warriors. Some are bred naturally, others are made in a test tube - though few survive the process. They don’t have lives outside the Wards to miss; they are perfect monsters.”</p><p>“I’ve never been to one myself directly, but I knew someone who was,” I continued. “They focus direct attention on you in Facilities and your training regiment becomes more pointed and directed at your skillset specifically. For example, as an Apollo descendant, they would push me to learn medicine and healing, light power, sound manipulation, music, poetry, plagues, prophecy, archery, and even mastering herding and being a shepherd. They’d find the most useful techniques and find a way to weaponize them. They will force you to be fiercely loyal to them and their duties to protect humans from the supernatural world. In the Wards, perhaps you could hide amongst the other residents of your barrack, but in the Facilities you are being monitored directly at all times and a training regiment is built tailored to you. They won’t release you from the facilities until they’re sure you are fully loyal to your torturers. Then, you’ll be sent out as a super-powered agent who works for the Wards. No chance of betrayal, capturing demigods, destroying monsters, and recently they’ve even started attacking camps.”</p><p>“Like Camp Jupiter?” Frank asked warily.</p><p>I nodded. “There was a demigod camp like yours, but they were living in solitude up north. They’d survived all this time, hidden from monsters, surviving with a demigod population. They were kinda like the Twelfth Legion in a sense that they’re a surviving faction from after the fall of Rome. Kaze and I took sanctuary there once. But not long before the second Titan War, it was raided. The amount of damage and the <em> type </em> of damage could’ve only been made by enhanced humans, and the ruthlessness suggests a long-awaited destruction.” I tapped my temple. “Even when I was only Zyanya, I knew it was the Wards. They destroyed good people, and I started to fear how far they would go. Problem with humans is…well, they’re human. We’re supposed to be protecting them, it’s true, but what happens when they start turning against their protectors?”</p><p>“So…in summation, all of these guys are unstoppable, badass, loyal warriors, and since they’re capturing the gods, they’re declaring war against us and we’re basically all screwed?” Leo slumped over in disappointment.</p><p>“They’re probably using the chaos of the war with Gaea to make their move,” Hazel guessed. “We’re dealing with so much already, and then there’s <em> this </em>…”</p><p>“Honestly, I’m not so sure they’re entirely our enemies,” Emily admitted. “I questioned Pain, and she was eager to tell me about her team. I’ve got a list of their powers and their names thanks to her.”</p><p>“Why would she be so open about it?”</p><p>Emily shrugged, pulling out a clipboard where she’d written down some neat notes. “Maybe she wants us to be afraid of them, knowing their powers. Audrey and I were born and gifted with the power to assist and contain the Primordials during their time of need, but <em> their </em> powers are so…well, it’s hard to explain.”</p><p>Audrey sighed. “We were brought to protect the seven of the prophecy from some dangerously high odds, and now that we’d figured out the Primordial situation, I thought it’d just be babysitting duties and maybe one of those reanimations.”</p><p>I gave a wry smile. “Unfortunately, the Primordials aren't bound by fate - they <em> invented </em> the Fates - but what they <em> are </em> bound by is curiosity, entertainment, and boredom. Our lives are a game to them, and they won’t be making it easy. All Veon and I can do is try to use their powers without killing ourselves in the process.”</p><p>“After all the trouble we went through to save them, they’d just let you blow yourselves up trying to use their power?”</p><p>“That’s how it goes. Mortals shouldn’t be able to wield the Primordial powers of their own free will. It’s a dodgy situation, balancing humanity and the Primordials’ lack of care. The Primordials, for the most part, turn off our omnipotent powers and such."</p><p>“What bothers me is that the one called Boss said something about their patron being freed,” Annabeth said. “That was deliberate wording. Normally, Gaea has been the patron of most of our enemies. But these demigods haven’t been a problem recently, and Gaea has been waking for a long time now, so to say that <em> now </em> their patron has been <em> freed? </em> Gaea is waking up, but she’s not really <em> restrained </em> is she?”</p><p>“You’re suggesting their patron <em> isn’t </em> Gaea,” Piper said. “And that makes sense, if they’re from a human facility. But that also means having a patron being freed at <em> all </em> is suspicious. If they’re made fiercely loyal, then their ‘patrons’ would be their human…subjugators.”</p><p>“If their patron was just recently ‘freed,’ could that mean they escaped from Tartarus before the Doors of Death were closed?” Jason suggested.</p><p>“If the comparison is some humans with some monsters and deities, it’d be easy to understand how they could change handlers,” Frank admitted.</p><p>“They’re trained to be loyal to the Wards, aren’t they?” Percy asked.</p><p>“They’re trained to be loyal to whoever is in charge,” Kaze corrected.</p><p>“If they’re allowed to roam free, that increases the chance of them beginning to think for themselves and deciding who they want to follow,” I reasoned. “But whoever they <em> do </em> choose to follow, they will do so without absolute certainty. Until it doesn’t suit their needs anymore, of course.”</p><p>“If they’re <em> not </em> working for the Wards and have such flexible but absolute morals, that makes them <em> very </em> dangerous, but Boss also said that <em> we </em> would decide whether they were with or against us,” Annabeth recalled.</p><p>“Meaning that if we look like we’re gonna win, they’re gonna jump to our aid?” Leo asked hopefully.</p><p>“Maybe. I don’t know what their conditions are. Their help might win this battle for us, but their opposition will no doubt be our downfall.”</p><p>Azrael was looking at Emily’s list of the Ward demigods with Kaze. I glanced at Kaze, and he nodded.</p><p>“What’s up?” Emily asked, noticing the interaction.</p><p>“I believe we knew one of the Ward members,” Kaze admitted. “I saw her in Ithaca - the woman with white hair who was controlling the plants. According to this, she goes by Famine now-”</p><p>“-but her original name that <em> we </em> knew her by was Winter,” I finished. “She offered me sanctuary, back in the day. Once I’d met Kaze, I took him there so that he’d know the way to safety if ever I couldn’t protect him. Winter was a queen. She looked after her people, and she ruled both strictly and peacefully. She’s taken in plenty of Ward escapees that reach her - she takes in anyone who needs help - but she never actively left her kingdom because she was defending it.”</p><p>“Child of Demeter…” Audrey read. “A dangerous botanist?”</p><p>“<em> Among other things </em>,” Emily said. “Look, what Pain told me for Famine was some serious stuff. She can summon plants and cause them to grow and be manipulated at a high rate - Pain said she can summon a plant bigger than the Argo II in seconds - but what’s most interesting is her ability to hasten or sedate the cycle of life by siphoning life energies.”</p><p>“Yes, she’s functionally immortal,” I agreed. “I first found Winter around 150 years ago. She had been ruling her kingdom for far longer than that - perhaps even dating back to Rome and Ancient Greece itself. I don’t understand why she would be in the Ward program - let <em> alone </em> working for them willingly. The Facilities are bad, I have no doubt, but Winter has always been above it. I don’t know <em> how </em> they could’ve destroyed her kingdom, a place that had been fortified and only growing stronger for <em> centuries </em>. I don’t know how Winter would allow it, how she could possibly tolerate working with the people who destroyed her life’s work.”</p><p>“Maybe you could talk to her next time we meet,” Hazel suggested.</p><p>“Winter isn’t one for bargaining and being swayed by her emotions once she puts her mind to something. But yes, I <em> would </em> like to speak to her. Only problem is, we have no idea when any of them are going to show up and at any time.”</p><p>“They met us on Ithaca when Hera showed up, but it appeared they had been waiting there on purpose,” Azrael said. “If we go and visit Olympia, perhaps they’ll follow us and capture Nike.”</p><p>“That…” Percy paused. “Would that be a <em> good </em> thing, or a bad thing?”</p><p>“A…thing,” Leo answered. “It’d definitely be <em> some</em>thing.”</p><p>“Well, we don’t have that Forge guy, but we have Leo,” Hazel announced. “We were going to find Victoria, and Juno said to capture her, right?”</p><p>“‘<em> Subdue </em>’ her, but basically,” Piper confirmed.</p><p>“Then I guess we go there and capture her before the Ward kids get to her? Leo has some devices, surely.”</p><p>Leo shrugged. “Yeah, but, hey about this victory goddess being popular and great - don’t you guys remember what her kids are like at Camp Half-Blood?”</p><p>Hazel and Frank had never been to Camp Half-Blood, but the others nodded gravely.</p><p>“He’s got a point,” Percy said. “Those kids in Cabin Seventeen - they’re <em> super </em> competitive. When it comes to capture the flag, they’re almost worse than the Ares kids. Uh, no offense, Frank.”</p><p>Frank shrugged. “You’re saying Nike has a dark side?”</p><p>“Her <em> kids </em> sure do,” Annabeth said. “They never turn down a challenge. They <em> have </em> to be number one at everything. If their mom is that intense…”</p><p>“Yikes,” Audrey voiced.</p><p>“Whoa.” Piper put her hands on the table like the ship was rocking. “Guys, all the gods are split between their Greek and Roman aspects, right? If Nike’s that way, and she’s the goddess of <em> victory </em>-”</p><p>“She’d be <em> really </em> conflicted,” Emily said gravely.</p><p>“She’d want one side or the other to win so that she could declare a victor,” Annabeth continued. “She’d literally be fighting with herself.”</p><p>Hazel nudged her cereal bowl across the map of Greece. “But we don’t <em> want </em> one side or the other to win. We’ve got to get the Greeks and Romans on the same team.”</p><p>“Maybe that’s the problem,” Jason realized. “If the goddess of victory is running rampant, torn between Greek and Roman, she might make it impossible to bring the two camps together.”</p><p>“How?” Leo asked. “Start a flame war on Twitter?”</p><p>Percy stabbed at his pancakes. “Maybe she’s like Ares. That guy can spark a fight just by walking into a crowded room. If Nike radiates competitive vibes or something, she could aggravate the whole Greek-Roman rivalry big-time.”</p><p>Frank pointed at Percy. “You remember that old sea god in Atlanta - Phorcys? He said that Gaea’s plans always have lots of layers. This could be part of the giants’ strategy - keep the two camps divided; keep the gods divided. If that’s the case, we can’t let Nike play us against each other. We should send a landing party of at least four - two Greeks, two Romans. The balance might help keep <em> her </em> balanced. However you want to organize your team, Rei, that’s up to you, but we <em> should </em> be staying as balanced as possible.”</p><p>Frank had had a true growth spurt during the last few weeks - and not just physically. He was taller and buffer, but he was almost more confident now, more willing to take charge. Maybe that was because his magic firewood lifeline was safely stashed away in a flame-proof pouch, or maybe it was because he’d commanded a zombie legion and gotten promoted to praetor. Whatever the case, it was hard to see him as the same klutzy dude who’d once <em> iguana-ed </em> his way out of Chinese handcuffs.</p><p>“I think Frank is right,” Annabeth said. “A party of four for us. We’ll have to be careful who goes. We don’t want to do anything that might make the goddess, um, more unstable.”</p><p>“I’ll go,” Piper volunteered. “I can try charmspeaking.”</p><p>Worry lines deepened around Annabeth’s eyes. “Not this time, Piper. Nike is all about competition. Aphrodite…well, she is too, in her own way. I think Nike might see you as a threat.”</p><p>Once, Leo might’ve made a joke about that. <em> Piper? </em> A <em> threat? </em> The girl was like a sister to him, but if he needed help beating up a gang of thugs or subduing a victory goddess, Piper was not the first person he’d turn to. Recently though…well, Piper may not have changed as obviously as Frank, but she <em> had </em> changed. She had stabbed Khione the snow goddess in the chest; she had defeated the Boreads; she’d slashed up a flock of wild harpies singlehandedly. As for her charmspeak, she’d gotten so powerful it made Leo nervous. If she told him to eat his vegetables, he might actually <em> do </em> it.</p><p>Annabeth’s words didn’t seem to upset her. Piper just nodded and scanned the group. “Who should go, then? Emily, are you out as well?”</p><p>She put her hand to her chin. “Well…I <em> do </em> have the Hearth of Hestia, meaning I have her blessing. Hestia was always the goddess who resolved conflicts among the gods. I can’t tell if that will calm Nike or cause her to get even more aggravated that someone might be trying to mediate a situation. I mean, haven’t you ever gotten angry when someone tells you to calm down during a tough situation?”</p><p>“I’ll think about it,” I dismissed. “But Jason and Percy definitely shouldn’t go together. Jupiter and Poseidon - bad combination. Greek vs Roman, sky vs sea, and you two <em> already </em> were pushed to fight by the Eidolons before. Nike could start you two fighting easily, and with Jason still incapacitated from Ithaca, I don’t want him roaming about anyway.”</p><p>Percy gave a sideways smile. “Yeah, we can’t have another incident like in Kansas. I might kill my bro Jason.”</p><p>“Or I might kill my bro Percy,” Jason said amiably.</p><p>“Veon would kill you both,” Veon said. It was the first time he’d spoken in a while, so it drew eyes. Also he spoke in the third person, which was not worrying <em> at all </em>.</p><p>“We also shouldn’t send Frank and Annabeth together,” Audrey went on. “Mars and Athena - same problem. Athena made it clear she didn’t like the Romans for replacing her, particularly as a war goddess. I shouldn’t go with Jason for the same reason Percy shouldn’t go. Frank himself isn’t a risk, and a son of Mars rather than Ares is at least a <em> little </em> more controlled and docile. Hermes is an all-around safe choice. He’s a messenger of the gods, and besides that one time where he stole Apollo’s cattle when he was born, he’s on good terms with all of them - even Hades.”</p><p>“So to make it even on our team, Kaze and Emily,” I concluded. “Kaze’s inventing power can also help in subduing Nike, and Emily’s lighter charmspeak than Piper’s may be less of a threat when combined with her overall calming aura. They’re both Greeks, but they both have special cases - Kaze being that he’s a dead reanimation, and Emily’s being that her origins are split between both Hestia and Aphrodite’s blessings.”</p><p>“You sure Jason will be fine without me?” Emily asked.</p><p>“Hey, you patched me up real good,” Jason insisted. “There’s not much more you can do right now. You’re not gonna be gone for months or anything, and I have the others here to protect me if things go down.”</p><p>“Okay,” Leo broke in. “So that means for <em> our </em> team, Percy and me for the Greeks, Frank and Hazel for the Romans. Is that the ultimate non-competitive dream team or what?”</p><p>Annabeth and Frank exchanged war-godly looks while Audrey looked down into a bowl of water and mentally mapped out the options.</p><p>“It could work,” Frank decided. “I mean, <em> no </em> combination is going to be perfect, but Poseidon, Hephaestus, Pluto, Mars…I don’t see any huge antagonism there.”</p><p>“Nothing worth provoking a fight anyway,” Audrey agreed. “I’m just a pure Poseidon kid, so better Emily than me in terms of our team so that we keep balance and the peace. Don’t get kicked in the head by a pegasus this time, little bro.”</p><p>He sipped his syrup orange juice with a haughty face. "No promises."</p><p>Audrey flicked her finger and sent the drink into his face. Percy sputtered and cleaned himself as best he could with his powers and then with a napkin. Ever since Tartarus where he had learned to control poison, he’d started to learn to control liquids other than water. He wasn’t an expert yet, but Audrey had been teaching him.</p><p>Hazel traced her finger along the map of Greece. “I still wish we could’ve gone through the Gulf of Corinth. I was hoping we could visit Delphi, maybe get some advice. Plus it’s such a long way around the Peloponnese.”</p><p>“Yeah.” The mood fell as they saw how much coastline they still had to navigate. “It’s July twenty-second already. Counting today, only ten days until-”</p><p>“I know,” Jason said. “But Juno was clear. The shorter way would have been suicide.”</p><p>“And as for Delphi…” Piper leaned towards the map. The blue harpy feather in her hair swung like a pendulum. “What’s going on there? If Apollo doesn’t have his Oracle anymore…”</p><p>“True, the power of prophetic visions <em> have </em> stopped coming abruptly,” I said. “I thought that it was a result of me Primordial-bonding and knocking my power-set out of whack. My mother’s blessings enhanced my powers over the years, and the prophetic side of my Apollo blood was never perfect, but my intuition always felt trustable. Now I can hardly feel his power at all…”</p><p>“Could it be that they’re split between their personalities?” Kaze asked. “That is hurting most of the gods’ powers.”</p><p>“But is Apollo not always Apollo?” Azrael recalled.</p><p>“On Delphi, that’s unlikely, but it <em> could </em> be a factor,” I shrugged. “The war is hurting all the gods, and I’d assume they’re no different.”</p><p>Percy grunted. “Probably something to do with that creep Octavian. Maybe he was <em> so </em> bad at telling the future, he broke Apollo’s powers.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t rule it out,” Audrey muttered.</p><p>Jason managed a smile, though his eyes were cloudy from pain. “Hopefully we can find Apollo and Artemis. Then you can ask him yourself. Juno said the twins might be willing to help us.”</p><p>“A lot of unanswered questions,” Frank muttered. “A lot of miles to cover before we get to Athens.”</p><p>“First things first,” Annabeth said. “You guys have to find Nike and figure out how to subdue her…whatever Juno meant by that. Even if our goal <em> is </em> to capture her, I still don’t understand how you defeat a goddess who controls victory. Seems impossible.”</p><p>Leo started to grin. He couldn’t help it. Sure, we only had ten days to stop the giants from waking Gaea. Sure, he could die before dinnertime. But he loved being told that something was impossible. It was like someone handing him a lemon meringue pie and telling him not to throw it. He just couldn’t resist the challenge.</p><p>“We’ll see about that.” Leo rose to his feet. “Let me get my collection of grenades and I’ll meet you guys on deck!”</p><hr/><p>“And go!”</p><p>Audrey hit the button on the stopwatch as Veon disappeared into thin wisps of smoke that zipped away with only a small breeze and the whispers of spirits accompanying his departure. They were at ground level, watching as Veon headed straight up to the Argo II parked 100 feet in the air (since we never would’ve found parking).</p><p>“Are you sure it’s a good idea to be using his powers?” Audrey asked.</p><p>“He needs to get a handle on them,” I reasoned. “Whether Tartarus likes it or not, Veon is in charge most of the time, and when he’s <em> not </em> in charge, Order and Chaos keep him in check. Since the two are merging, both are learning from each other. Veon has a few powers outside of Primordial-given gifts, but I’d rather have him equipped knowing how to use these powers than having to learn them on the fly during battle. Tartarus may not be at his full strength, but he and Veon could still drive each other mad if they don’t learn to work together.”</p><p>Veon reappeared just above the railing of the deck, falling the couple remaining inches and landing on the balls of his feet gracefully. Audrey hit the stopwatch. I could see his eyes glowing an unnatural red even from down at ground level. He was far more calm and collected than the first time he’d done it, where he’d come out of his shadow-step dazed, facing the wrong direction, and falling on his face.</p><p>“Five and a half seconds,” Audrey announced.</p><p>“Okay! Come back down!”</p><p>He jumped off the railing and began falling. Once he started to speed up, he disappeared into wisps again, which continued his descent. When they hit the ground, they scattered and then rebounded to swirl up and reform Veon’s body.</p><p>“Congratulations, you can now fall like you’re in Spira with no fall damage,” I said.</p><p>He cracked a smile. A smile seemed so rare on him these days. “Good to know. I’m <em> probably </em> made out of pyreflies.”</p><p>“Probably.”</p><p>“We’ll work on the Kako next.”</p><p>“All this training has been focused on Veon,” Audrey noticed. “What about you, Rei?”</p><p>I could tell that Audrey paused before my name. Honestly, I felt bad for switching my name so many times, but I wanted to be Rei now. Hopefully it won't change again. I applauded Audrey for not starting to say my name and correcting herself - she managed to catch herself beforehand.</p><p>“Me? I’ve already lived with Zyanya back in the day. I’ve worked <em> plenty </em> on my powers. Chaos is a bit different than Order, for sure, but they’re both the same source of Primordial power. My power set adapts to whatever I want and need. I can summon, use my own natural abilities even better than before, and pretty much do whatever I want with caution. Overtaxing my powers, enhancing others…you know the works. I can <em> very </em> easily go overboard, so the only thing I really need to work on is making sure that I keep my energy levels low enough when I’m using any of my power so that I don’t blow myself up. That’s happened a few times in the past with Zyanya, so I expect to explode a couple times now too, and I really don’t wanna do that right now. In any case, I can at least keep myself mostly stable, and the Primordial within comes out when they want to, but you’ll probably be able to tell if I’ve switched over. Until those moments, I’m myself. All me. I’d rather work on stabilizing Veon. He’s new to this whole thing, and I want him prepared in case he ends up having to use his power or his Primordial busts out.”</p><p>“Training does help,” Veon admitted. He still seemed solemn.</p><p>Audrey shrugged. “Well, keep in touch if you need anything. I’ma go do some more research and mapping. If we’re gonna visit Delphi, I wanna be up to date on my mythology on Artemis and Apollo.”</p><p>She summoned her trident (now newly repaired after the battle in Tartarus) and flew back up to the ship.</p><p>“You sure you’re all right?” I asked.</p><p>“It’s getting easier,” he assured me. He rested his hands on his knees, leaning forward from a wave of exhaustion. “Does…tax you, though.”</p><p>“It will. But the thing about you is that your aura is naturally subjugating. With me, when I first got Zyanya, I enhanced her powers easily, but if it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have survived the first few minutes of that kinda power. The only reason I made it was because of my Remnants and my mother’s power to revive and enhance me when I die. I was specifically designed to handle my aura’s ability to focus and enhance the Primordial power, while you were specifically designed to handle your aura’s ability to weaken and relax Primordial power.”</p><p>He plopped down on the ground, crossing his legs. “Feels too convoluted to me. None of our parents, godly or otherwise, could’ve predicted and deliberately shaped our fate.”</p><p>I sat down in front of him, mimicking his position. “Dunno. Primordials plan everything, but sometimes they let fate go its way and then pick up the pieces. Things get boring when you control everything that has to happen.”</p><p>Veon sighed and laid back, staring up at the sky. “You said you were around 200 years old, right?”</p><p>I nodded. “Most of it was torture and deaths. I ran away a few times, but…they always caught me. The Wards ruined a lot of lives, I got passed around to a couple different handlers over the years. But yes, it was around 200 years. I remember the Victorian era when I was around 50 and escaped. Why do you ask?”</p><p>“Did it feel like an eternity?”</p><p>“Of course it did. I spent years being tortured, and the years that I <em> wasn’t </em> tortured, I was watching my friends being taken, killed, tortured, and just dying on their own. Winter was…Winter was one of my only friends who I met multiple times over the years. It’s easy to understand if she were angry and lost, living such a lonely, immortal life. I don’t know how long <em> she’s </em> been alive, but 200 years for me were all pure hell. I had my pleasures, of course, but most of them were taken away from me. I don’t know how I retained my sanity - maybe I didn’t, and it was restored when I took within me Primordial beings who numbed me to most emotions.”</p><p>“So when you merged with your Primordial, it got easier?”</p><p>I laid down beside him. “You’re worried about your future. How long we’ll be like this.”</p><p>“In the eyes of the gods, especially deities that have been here since the beginning, 200 years is nothing. Like waiting a year for a video game to be released - feels like a long time, sure, but it’ll pass before you know it. A lot of change could happen or very little change could happen. What will it feel like to us? Are we going to start losing our feelings? I know the Primordials don’t care about things as trivial as humans. Gaea must stop us if she wants to wake, but otherwise…I mean beyond being their enemies sometimes, we don’t really matter. Will we start finding our friends worthless? Will we start to stop feeling and wanting to help them? Will it be their fault or will it be us, pushing away our humanity because it hurts so much?”</p><p>“You’ve done a lot of thinking.”</p><p>He chuckled. “Thinking pisses him off. He doesn’t like thinking. It’s exhausting for him. It exhausts me. But I still do it.”</p><p>“Then you should relax. What I’ve learned is that living in the moment is easiest. We have our people now, and we have our sanity for now. Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.”</p><p>“How long until we fall into an ennui? I feel like I’ve already made it.”</p><p>“Things get a bit existential when you share the mind of a being who sees this entire conflict as nothing special. You could snap your fingers and shape the whole of reality - or simply destroy it. But Chaos and Order…they’re allowing us to roam about as we are, tapping into only the power we ourselves can manage. Might as well take advantage of such generosity.”</p><p>“But doesn’t it make you suspicious? They often go off on their own doing things and we aren’t allowed to know what.”</p><p>“<em> Yes </em>, I’m concerned. But being concerned won’t do us much good. Perhaps they’re just influencing me, but logically it doesn’t make sense for us to worry about it yet. Until we find something to worry about, we shouldn’t.”</p><p>He sighed. “I don’t understand how you’re so relaxed. I thought maybe you’d have as much turmoil as me hosting <em> both </em> the Primordials. But I suppose you’re already an expert on this.”</p><p>“It’s nice to be free of most emotions, but it’s also scary, worrying that you’re going to forget who you are. We could disappear, lose ourselves, become powerless in our own bodies. I don’t wanna lose myself, but I’ve found a lot of good things recently. Guess I’m just stuck in the high of actually making some semblance of a victory. I have you here, you’re okay, you can use your powers, and I’m going to be here to keep you stable. We can do this, we can manage this life. We can win this war, and then we can fix the damage. All we have to do is kick Gaea’s butt, eh?”</p><p>Veon raised his hand, watching his fingers dance through the air. He looked like he was trying to shape the clouds with his hand. “I know that I have <em> some </em> powers of Tartarus, but the small part of him that I can maintain isn’t nearly enough to combat Gaea.”</p><p>“If she’s at full strength, you mean. Even if she wakes, we’ll have a small opportunity to take her out before she taps into her full strength. If she <em> does </em> grow beyond our reach…my powers might be more destructive than we’d like. Tapping into Primordial power is all or nothing for me. You can at least manage Tartarus because he’s weakened within you and separated from his main power source. Chaos and Order-”</p><p>“Khaos. Just go with Khaos.”</p><p>“Khaos is strong enough when merged into one, but my aura specifically enhances and focuses the powers of Primordials within me. I activate the Primordial power, and I might take out an entire continent. Hell, I could accidentally break off a chunk of the earth’s crust and release some of the magma from beneath and literally break off a piece of the world.”</p><p>He chuckled, dropping his hand on his chest. “<em> That </em> would make Gaea unhappy.”</p><p>I smiled. “Don’t you worry, Veon. I’ll be here for you the whole way, all right?”</p><p>“Well you <em> were </em> the one who brought me back from Tartarus. Primordial or not, you’ve gotta make it up to me.”</p><p>I took his hand, lacing our fingers together and feeling his stirring Primordial energies swirling around. “I’ll make sure you won’t regret it. And it’ll all work out. Even if the gods were to fall, I’ll make sure everything gets put right.”</p><hr/><p>First Person: Emily</p><p>“Smart call back there,” Percy said, “choosing the air-conditioning.”</p><p>Leo, Percy, and I had just searched the museum. Now we were sitting on a bridge that spanned the Kladeos River, our feet dangling over the water as we waited for Frank, Hazel, and Kaze to finish scouting the ruins. To our left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat; to our right, the visitors’ lot was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because we’d have never found a place to park it.</p><p>Leo skipped a stone across the river. He looked awkward with Percy there. For one thing, he wasn’t sure what kind of small talk to make with a guy who’d recently come back from Tartarus. ‘<em> Catch that last episode of Doctor Who? Oh, right. You were trudging through the Pit of Eternal Damnation! </em> ’ Percy had been intimidating enough <em> before </em> - summoning hurricanes, dueling pirates, killing giants in the Colosseum…</p><p>Now…well, after what happened in Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally different level of butt-kickery. Leo had trouble even thinking of him as part of the same <em> camp </em> . The two of them had never been at Camp Half-Blood at the same time. Percy’s leather necklace had four beads for four completed summers. Leo’s leather necklace had exactly none. The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about <em> that </em>, he wanted to punch Percy in the face.</p><p>Leo kept thinking he should bring it up, just to clear the air, but the timing never seemed right. And as the days went by, the subject got harder and harder to broach.</p><p>“What?” Percy asked.</p><p>Leo stirred. “What, what?”</p><p>“You were staring at me, like, <em> angry </em>.”</p><p>“Was I?” Leo tried to muster a joke, or at least a smile, but he couldn’t. “Um, sorry.”</p><p>“Leo…” I began. His distress and heartbreak were like having your heart squeezed like a water balloon, and any moment it would burst and release a river of tears.</p><p>Percy gazed at the river. “I suppose we need to talk.” He opened his hand and the stone Leo had skipped flew out of the stream, right into Percy’s palm.</p><p>“<b> <em>Oh</em> </b> ,” Leo thought, “ <b> <em>we’re showing off now?</em> </b>”</p><p>His anger was burning like acid within him. I could feel his thoughts and rage without even needing to prod; he was emanating his feelings so intensely that anything emotion-sensitive could feel it. He was considering shooting a column of fire at the nearest tour bus and blowing up the gas tank, but he decided that might be a tad dramatic.</p><p>“I agree,” I announced. I glared at Leo, pushing through my message. “We should really talk about this.”</p><p>He sighed, averting his gaze to the water like he was considering chucking another stone. “Maybe we <em> should </em> talk. But not-”</p><p>“Guys!” Frank stood at the far end of the parking lot, waving at us to come over. Next to him, Hazel sat astride her horse Arion, who had appeared unannounced as soon as we’d landed. Kaze was wearing some fancy tech glasses that he’d invented, standing with his back to us as he wiggled his fingers and seemed to interact with the special electronic that was resistant to monster attacks.</p><p>Saved by the Zhang.</p><p>We jogged over to meet our friends.</p><hr/><p>“This place is huge,” Frank reported. “The ruins stretch from the river to the base of that mountain over there, about half a kilometer.”</p><p>“How far is that in regular measurements?” Percy asked.</p><p>Frank rolled his eyes. “That <em> is </em> a regular measurement in Canada and the <em> rest </em> of the world. Only you Americans-”</p><p>“About a third of a mile.” “About five or six football fields.” “Kilometers are better. Also that is about 1,640.419948 feet.”</p><p>Me, Hazel, and Kaze all answered at once, with Kaze’s response being the longest and the last one to finish. I recalled that Kaze worked with the metric system as well and he hated the imperial system since he’d mastered his math skills under the metric system and translating was difficult, but I noticed he was reading off his glasses, which had multiple things scrolling past his eyes. He must have internet connection. I only knew the transfer from kilometers to miles because of my chemistry and physics classes from high school - since the U.S. still teaches things like math and science in the metric system. Rei often complained that she had no idea what a teaspoon, a pint, and a gallon were supposed to be; she went by liters and milliliters.</p><p>Hazel fed her horse a big chunk of gold while Kaze wiggled his fingers that had metal plates going up his fingers to track the moments of his joints to work on whatever he was doing. While he wasn’t a Hephaestus kid, his inventing skills from Hermes were nothing to be ashamed of. With his ADHD, he was constantly doing something - stealing something, making something, unlocking something, and with his speed he ran through all those things within seconds and then still got bored.</p><p>Percy spread his hands. “That’s all you needed to say.”</p><p>“Anyway,” Frank continued, “from overhead, I didn’t see anything suspicious.”</p><p>“Neither did I,” Hazel agreed. “Arion took me on a complete loop around the perimeter. A lot of tourists, but no crazy goddess. Kaze ran around the whole place as well, doing…whatever it is he’s doing.” Kaze hummed in affirmation, but he clearly wasn’t listening to the conversation.</p><p>Hazel’s big stallion nickered and tossed his head, his neck muscles rippling under his butterscotch coat. I could sense Percy’s disturbance as he translated what the horse said, and tapping into his brain, I sighed. “Man, your horse can cuss.”</p><p>Percy shook his head. “He doesn’t think much of Olympia.”</p><p>For once, Leo agreed with the horse. He didn’t like the idea of tromping through fields full of ruins under a blazing sun, shoving his way through hordes of sweaty tourists while searching for a split-personality victory goddess. Besides, Frank had already flown over the whole valley as an eagle. If his sharp eyes hadn’t seen anything, maybe there was nothing to see. If Kaze and his thoroughness with his speed hadn’t found anything, then that meant there <em> certainly </em> had to be nothing, right? On the other hand, Leo’s tool belt pockets were full of dangerous toys. He would hate to go home without blowing anything up.</p><p>I smiled and shook my head. Leo was always being humorous, even to himself.</p><p>“So we blunder around together and let trouble find us,” Leo suggested. “It’s always worked before.”</p><p>We poked around for a while, avoiding tour groups and ducking from one patch of shade to the next. Not for the first time, Leo was struck by how similar Greece was to his home state of Texas - the low hills, the scrubby trees, the drone of cicadas, and the oppressive summer heat. Switch out the ancient columns and ruined temples for cows and barbed wire, and Leo would’ve felt right at home.</p><p>Frank found a tourist pamphlet - seriously, he’d read the ingredients on a soup can; it was nice having his helpful mindset - and gave us a running commentary on what was what.</p><p>“This is the Propylon.” He waved towards a stone path lined with crumbling columns. “One of the main gates into the Olympic valley.”</p><p>“Rubble!” Leo concluded.</p><p>“And over there-” Frank pointed to a square foundation that looked like the patio for a Mexican restaurant. “-is the Temple of Hera, one of the oldest structures here.”</p><p>“More rubble!”</p><p>“And that round bandstand-looking thing - that’s the Philipeon, dedicated to Philip of Macedonia.”</p><p>“Hey, Rei talked about a Philip of Macedonia before…” I muttered.</p><p>“Even <em> more </em> rubble!” Leo announced. “First-rate rubble!”</p><p>Hazel, who was still riding Arion, kicked Leo in the arm. “Doesn’t <em> anything </em> impress you?”</p><p>Leo glanced up. Her curly gold-brown hair and golden eyes matched her helmet and sword so well she might’ve been engineered from Imperial gold. Leo doubted Hazel would consider that a compliment, but as far as humans went, Hazel was first-rate craftsmanship.</p><p>Leo remembered their trip together through the House of Hades. Hazel had led him through that creepy maze of illusions; she’d made the sorceress Pasiphaë disappear through an imaginary hold in the floor; she’d battled the giant Clytius while Leo choked in the giant’s cloud of darkness. She’d cut the chains binding the Doors of Death. Meanwhile Leo had done…well, pretty much nothing.</p><p>I could tell Leo was still beating himself up over that - even though Jason, his friend who he idolized as a more experienced fighter and leader, had been knocked out or otherwise immobilized more than enough to have his own doubts about his usefulness on this quest. None of us were perfect, and Clytius had been Hazel’s specific challenge to prove herself. Leo would have his time, and hey, he’d already done a lot for us on this quest, so he shouldn’t be feeling so down.</p><p>He wasn’t infatuated with Hazel anymore; his heart was far away on the island of Ogygia. Still, Hazel Levesque impressed him - even when she <em> wasn’t </em> sitting atop a scary immortal supersonic horse who cussed like a sailor. He didn’t say any of this, but Hazel must have picked up on his thoughts. She looked away, flustered.</p><p>Happily oblivious, Frank continued his guided tour. “And over there…oh.” He glanced at Percy. “Uh, that semicircular depression in the hill, with the niches…that’s a nymphaeum, built in Roman times.”</p><p>Percy’s face turned the color of limeade. “Here’s an idea: let’s not go there.”</p><p>I recalled the tale of Audrey, Percy, Piper, and Jason having a near-death experience in the nymphaeum in Rome while they were heading down to face the twins Otis and Ephialtes. “I love that idea.”</p><p>We kept walking.</p><p>Once in a while, Leo’s hands drifted to his tool belt. Ever since the Kerkopes had stolen it in Bologna, he was scared he might get belt-jacked again, though he doubted any monster was as good at thievery as those dwarves. Kaze was obviously fast enough, but he wasn’t interested in Leo’s toolbelt because he had his own magic pockets that could hold as much as Kaze wanted so long as it could fit through the actual pocket hole. It couldn’t summon new things like Leo’s could, but it had a far bigger storage capacity - so Kaze could pull out things bigger than a three-pound hammer without his magic pockets burning out. Leo wondered how the little crud monkeys were doing in New York. He hoped they were still having fun harassing Romans, stealing lots of shiny zippers and causing legionnaires’ pants to fall down.</p><p>“This is the Pelopion,” Frank said, pointing to another fascinating pile of stones.</p><p>“So many names starting with ‘P,’” I sighed.</p><p>“Come on, Zhang,” Leo whined. “<em> Pelopion </em> isn’t even a word. What is it - a sacred spot for <em> plopping? </em>”</p><p>Frank looked offended. “It’s the burial site of Pelops This whole part of Greece, the Peloponnese, was named after him.”</p><p>Leo resisted the urge to throw a grenade in Frank’s face. “I suppose I should know who Pelops was?”</p><p>“He was a prince, won his wife in a chariot race. Supposedly he started the Olympic games in honor of that.”</p><p>Hazel sniffed. “How romantic. ‘Nice wife you have, Prince Pelops.’ ‘Thanks. I won her in a chariot race.’”</p><p>I shrugged. “Well, back in the day, women were strong in places like Sparta, but women weren’t even considered related to their children because only men apparently contributed and women were just walking baby-makers. It t’was an era of…well, that stuff. Anyway, how is any of this helping find the victory goddess?”</p><p>“At the moment, the only victory I want is to vanquish an ice-cold drink and maybe some nachos.”</p><p>“Nachos…” Kaze muttered.</p><p>Still, the farther we got into the ruins, the more uneasy I felt. Leo’s babysitter as a child had been Tía Callida - aka Hera - who had encouraged him to prod a poisonous snake with a stick when he was four years old. The psycho goddess told him it was good training for being a hero, and maybe she’d been right. These days, we spent most of our time poking around until we found trouble. It really <em> was </em> the life story of a demigod. I could feel an unease in the air, and I noticed that Kaze was leading the charge, following a map on his map. I think that was a partially transparent version of Google maps, actually.</p><p>I scanned the crowds of tourists. None of them appeared to be monsters in disguise - maybe like those eidolons who’d chased us in Rome - or even nice-ish guys either who could lead us to Nike, but Leo kept glancing at them seeing familiar faces - his bully cousin, Raphael; his mean third-grade teacher, Mr. Borquin; his abusive foster mom, Teresa - all kinds of people who had treated Leo like dirt. He was probably just imagining their faces, but it made him uneasy. He remembered how the goddess Nemesis had appeared as his Aunt Rosa, the person Leo most resented and wanted revenge on. He wondered if Nemesis was around here somewhere, watching to see what Leo would do. He still wasn’t sure he’d paid his debt to that goddess. He suspected she wanted more suffering from him. Maybe today was the day.</p><p>And now, Pain was apparently one of Nemesis’s children - or at least a descendant or <em> something </em> from the Wards; we’d captured one of her kids, and though she hadn’t been mistreated in their care, who <em> knows </em> how Nemesis would take it? Some gods were close to their children, others weren’t. Since Nemesis was one of the gods who weren’t affected by the divide between the camps, I wouldn’t risk pissing her off.</p><p>“Here,” Kaze suddenly announced.</p><p>We stopped at some wide steps leading to another ruined building - the Temple of Zeus, according to Frank.</p><p>“Used to be a huge gold-and-ivory statue of Zeus inside,” Frank said. “One of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Made by the same dude who did the Athena Parthenos.”</p><p>It occurred to me that someone had to have <em> made </em> the Athena Parthenos. As the giant magical statue that we were hoping would solve the rift between the Greeks and Romans, having survived intact so long under Rome, I easily forgot that it was still a statue that was built by someone - it didn’t just <em> appear </em> or just zapped into existence from the gods. And the guy who made it had to have made other stuff too.</p><p>“Please tell me we don’t have to find it,” Percy whined. “I’ve had enough huge magic statues for one trip.”</p><p>“Agreed.” Hazel patted Arion’s flank, as the stallion was acting skittish.</p><p>Leo felt like whinnying and stomping his hooves too. He was hot and agitated and hungry. He’d felt like we’d prodded the poisonous snake about as much as we could, and the snake was about to strike back. He wanted to call it a day and return to the ship before that happened.</p><p>“This is the right place,” Kaze said.</p><p>“What do you mean?” I asked.</p><p>Kaze pressed a button on the rim of the left lens of his glasses. “Temple of Zeus.”</p><p>I tapped my forehead, trying to recall why that sounded familiar. “The statue of Nike…the statue in the museum…!”</p><p>“What is it?” Hazel prodded.</p><p>“A statue of Nike in the museum we checked. It was all in pieces, but it used to stand <em> here </em>, at the Temple of Zeus.”</p><p>Percy’s hand went to his pocket. He slipped out his pen Riptide. “You’re right. So if Nike was anywhere…this would be a good spot.”</p><p>Frank scanned our surroundings. “I don’t see anything.”</p><p>“Do you hear that clicking sound?” I asked.</p><p>Kaze walked up the steps of the temple of Zeus and looked around the large crumbling pillars. He blinked in surprise, and I could tell he stiffened from seeing something.</p><p>“What is it?”</p><p>We followed Kaze up the steps to find two figures sitting against the pillars with a screen hovering in front of them the size of a small TV. I realized that it <em> was </em> a TV, floating thanks to some antigravity thing, and the two figures were holding video game controllers, tapping buttons and clicking the stick-shifts around.</p><p>“Hey, you’re-!”</p><p>“Cheating,” Famine finished. “You’re cheating.”</p><p>“It’s not cheating,” Forge said smoothly. “It’s using my resources to the maximum extent. All <em> you </em> like to do is create giant plants.”</p><p>I glanced at the screen and realized they were playing Minecraft and building large temples/castles/er…whatever they were making. Forge was staggeringly efficient. I’d always found that game difficult to aim at what you were trying to interact with - maybe just because I was bad at videogames like that. It took me at least a few readjustments to aim at what I wanted to directly, but Forge was aiming directly at what he needed without a moment’s hesitation. Famine was still fast, but she did that thing where she sometimes had to readjust, and she looked like she was having to think hard about how she wanted to build things - meanwhile Forge seemed to have it all already mapped out.</p><p>“Winter!” Kaze exclaimed. His accent made it sound more like ‘vintah.’</p><p>She glared at him. “Don’t call me that. Anyway, hurry up and summon Nike. I’m getting bored with this stupid game.”</p><p>“Because you’re losing,” Forge said.</p><p>“<em> You </em> are the one who <em> contrived </em> this foolish game. You shant compare me to your…thingies. I’d compare your biology to that of a Solanaceae were I to be so cruel.”</p><p>“Dunno what you said, don’t care.” He didn’t take his eyes off the screen.</p><p>Famine crushed the controller in her hand and chucked it at the screen, smashing it easily. “Foolish trifles.”</p><p>Forge didn’t flinch, picking up his large forging hammer resting at his side and tapping it against the ground like he was banging a staff. The same purple hue that had transformed the prison to hold Juno glowed from the hammer and then snaked up to the screen, rebuilding it through magic seamlessly and allowing him to continue his game before the glow had even faded. Famine didn’t seem surprised by it, considering she remained composed the whole time and I felt her relaxation even as she crushed the controller and destroyed Forge’s entertainment knowing that he could just repair it. I also could sense that crushing the strong plastic and electronics wasn’t even taking her any effort. She was extremely strong and durable.</p><p>“You’re the one who volunteered to go on this mission,” Forge pointed out. “It was either you or Mirage.”</p><p>“Our conflict was far superior to warrant the attraction of the victory goddess. Mirage would be a…detrimental choice to assist you.” Her accent was very heavy, and she accentuated every vowel. Mirage came out as ‘Mirror-ah-zh.’</p><p>“You are here for Nike, right?” Kaze asked eagerly. His own foreign accent was coming out. “Please, I wish to speak with you.”</p><p>Famine stood. “You know how to locate Nike, do you not?”</p><p>Kaze blinked. “Uh…do not you?”</p><p>Percy sighed. “Well, guess <em> they’re </em> not gonna be any help.”</p><p>Leo shook his head. “Got my hopes up for nothing.”</p><p>“Uh, guys…” Frank muttered.</p><p>Hazel and Frank were staring at the Greeks. Hazel looked more annoyed, Frank looked more baffled.</p><p>“You didn’t read Emily’s report on the Ward kids, did you?” Hazel sighed.</p><p>Leo shrugged. “Figured I’d get to it once we got back.”</p><p>“You expected me to read a report that long?” Percy whined. “I can barely read a menu at a restaurant!”</p><p>I shook my head. “It’s okay. I know my notes were hasty and I took a lot of them. I’d planned to clean them up and make a few copies later.”</p><p>But I could tell why the more strategic Romans were worried. Famine and Forge were two out of three of the inhuman members of the Ward team. All three were functionally immortal, and these two were the older ones that dated back to the actual myths of Greek mythology. But I didn’t sense any hostility from them, and they genuinely seemed like they were just here out of obligation - because they were ordered to, because they had nothing better to do? Maybe.</p><p>Both Boss and Pain had said that our actions would determine theirs - the only question was, what were they looking for?</p><p>“Guess we’re no closer to finding Nike,” Leo shrugged. “Say, how does that hammer of yours work?”</p><p>“Leo!” Hazel protested.</p><p>“What? Can’t blame me for wanting to get something out of this boring trip listening to Zhang list off the fancy names for rubble. Em, any threats?”</p><p>“Well, not really-”</p><p>“Great, then I wanna play some Minecraft! Are those designed to be monster-proof?”</p><p>“Obviously, I’m not a fool,” Forge said flatly. “Wanna help me build Olympus? You’d be a better player than Famine.”</p><p>“I resent your mundane forms of amusement,” Famine said. She snatched up the repaired controller and tossed it at Leo, who barely managed to catch it from the force she threw with. “I do so grant my permission for your kinship to indulge in your frivolous acts of virtual construction.”</p><p>“That’s a fancy way of saying I’m in,” Leo shrugged, moving to join Forge in front of the screen.</p><p>“I don’t know what’s happening, but it looks amusing,” Percy admitted.</p><p>Frank sighed. “This <em> is </em> a good place to find Nike, right? You both wouldn’t be here otherwise.”</p><p>“This is the location I was directed to transport us to, yes,” Famine said.</p><p>“I did <em> not </em> ask for your help getting here,” Forge called.</p><p>“Your method of transportation is…abhorrent!”</p><p>“<em> Yours </em> is disgusting!”</p><p>“Uh…what?” Percy asked.</p><p>“Winter can close you in plant, ungrow you, then regrow you elsewhere,” Kaze explained, miming closing his hands around something and then spreading his fingers like he was opening flower petals.</p><p>“I warned you not to call me such,” Famine said.</p><p>Hazel sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “<em> Anyway </em>, who told you to come here?”</p><p>“Boss,” both Famine and Forge said.</p><p>“Boss is never wrong,” Forge continued.</p><p>“We do not question her knowledge,” Famine agreed.</p><p>“If Boss is saying that Nike is here, this <em> must </em> be the place that we’re looking for,” I said. “All we need to do is…summon her. Maybe by doing some winning through Minecraft?”</p><p>“Well, compared to Nike’s kids at Camp Half-Blood, you’d have to get <em> really </em> into it,” Percy said. "Competition is more likely to get her attention."</p><p>“In her broken state of mind, I would hazard a guess that deep anger and conflict would summon her,” Famine agreed. “Perhaps more intense than mere <em> gameplay </em> in a crafting game.”</p><p>“So…what if we promoted, like, Adidas shoes?” Percy wondered. “Would that make Nike mad enough to show up?”</p><p>Leo smiled while tapping the buttons on his controller. Maybe he and Percy <em> did </em> share something else - a stupid sense of humor. “Yeah, I bet that would <em> totally </em> be against her sponsorship deal. THOSE ARE NOT THE OFFICIAL SHOES OF THE OLYMPICS! YOU WILL DIE NOW!”</p><p>Hazel rolled her eyes. “You’re both impossible.”</p><p>Behind our group, a thunderous voice shook the ruins: “YOU WILL DIE NOW!”</p><p>Leo almost jumped out of his tool belt, dropping his controller (which Forge caught without taking his eyes off the screen or reacting to the loud noise), turning…and mentally kicking himself. He just <em> had </em> to invoke Adidas, the goddess of off-brand shoes.</p><p>“Oh…hi.” I wiggled my fingers towards the towering, looming goddess in a golden chariot with a spear aimed right at Leo.</p><p>Famine smiled. “Ah, I <em>knew</em> you would be useful in summoning the target.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. THE WARD KIDS LIST</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is a chapter dedicated to the Ward children, requested to keep all of them and their abilities organized. They have their own background story that I’ve been working on, but this is a good summary of them that’s COMPLETELY OPTIONAL TO READ. I will be inserting the necessary information as the story goes along; I do not expect anyone to memorize this whole thing, it is just there for anyone interested and as a reference if you wanna look them up.<br/>[ Basically, if you’re a demigod with dyslexia, don’t strain yourself. You know, spend your mental power reading the actual story between those monster attacks ;) ]<br/>Feel free to ask questions as I will be updating it at times to refine it to have everything explained. I tried to put physical descriptions and important quirks about each character when I could, but this may be updated in the future as I remember things that I’d planned but never wrote down or if someone asks a genuine question that I can answer but forgot to include. I tend to remember only once I’ve posted. The best ideas come when I’m unable to document them, after all.<br/>Information in brackets [like this] is information that is currently hidden to the character themself or hidden from the other characters.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <ol>
<li>Boss (Lorcan) - Athena</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Lorcan” means “Little fierce one.”</p><p>She is the leader of the entire team, built and raised specifically to be able to tame and work with dangerous demigods. She is physically trained in multiple forms of combat and she is constantly learning more information in order to be more than informed about the situation she is going into. Her brain works fast in combat and she knows how to formulate plans with what she has to work with.</p><p>Born into the Ward system directly from a lab and raised from birth in a Facility designed to make her into a weapon, she has never been distracted by entertainments and treats psychology and sociology as nothing but information about people that she can use. She knows all about her team - both strengths and weaknesses - and she <em> is </em> capable of sympathy when it comes to bonding with them as friends. She’s a blonde, but she has never grown up with the stereotype that it means she’s dumb so she never takes offense to the comment. Her blonde hair is cut short in a more tom-boy-ish fashion and she is physically bigger and stronger than most girls so she is not easily mistaken for an innocent girl.</p><p>Quake was her first member of her team when she was beginning, and as such she has the strongest bond with him. She knows his weaknesses and fears and she likes his silence because she knows he only speaks when he has something important to say. Quake always seems to be looking out for her, and she mostly reserves gentle smiles for him. She is slightly oblivious to his levels of affections and sees him like a bit of a puppy-dog.</p><p>[Boss has been training in meditation and absolute focus and she is the only one of her line of creations in the lab to master a Third-Eye technique - yes, a literal glowing, golden third eye opens on the forehead. Opening this eye requires absolute concentration without distractions, clearing one’s mind completely, but after it’s open it allows the user close to omnipotence, able to predict the infinite possibilities all at once. It takes an extremely strong mind to be able to handle that level of information and sort out the ideal scenarios without going insane. Even those who can <em> activate </em> the Third Eye and not go insane are mostly unable to move while maintaining the Eye, but Boss is the one that is able to still function at full capacity, able to actually use the Eye to her advantage and even enact the impossible tasks. (Activating the Eye affects Seven because she can feel the infinite possibilities and the odds exploding). Using the Eye still exhausts Boss; she can’t maintain it for more than a few minutes and she needs a great deal of rest and energy to recover afterwards. Only Quake and Famine (who helps her recover from using the Eye fast enough to avoid suspicion) know about her condition, and Quake is constantly worrying about her. The others know to trust Boss unconditionally, but they do not directly know about the Eye. Boss found their Patron first using the Eye, and they helped her stabilize it and assists her team for a price.]</p><p>[Boss does deal with an inferiority problem at times, feeling lost if she doesn’t know which direction to take with her team. If she doesn’t lead them properly, they could easily rebel against her. If she loses hold of her ability to use her Third Eye, she’d lose the power that keeps her people in line anyway, and she’d also be powerless. This is her disregarding her other qualities of intelligence, strategy, and human fighting styles that do put her above a great deal of people. She’s starting questioning her life and her future, and she even started considering rebelling against the Wards, but she has no idea what she would do and if her team would even follow her - or they could be turned <em> against </em> her.]</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Quake for his calm, caring, and focused personality (also she may reciprocating his feelings without realizing it)<br/>-Pestilence because she was one of Boss’s first friends who was a Freebee, introducing her to a new, more relaxing perspective on life that she began to enjoy<br/>-Seven because of her calm demeanor and her thoughtful mindset because she always considers everything affecting the odds<br/>-War because she does have strategic plans when it comes to destroying his enemies and Boss <em> does </em> appreciate having someone physically strong and so dedicated to battle that she does it smartly<br/>-Forge because his mind is always working as fast as hers and his creations are very interesting and useful to Boss, she can always ask for what she needs and he sill always seem to have it<br/>-Famine because of her relatable leadership qualities, because she is smart, resourceful, and powerful (and relatable to a certain extent)<br/>-Iota because of her cheery personality who is always attempting to make light of a situation</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Honestly she does care for all her team members, just some are more neutral than others, it’s not really hate, just occasional annoyance or just nothing special in particular</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Quake (Enesidaon) - Neptune</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Enesidaon” means “Earthshaker,” a possible epithet for Poseidon</p><p>He is able to control rock and earth, both able to control cracks in the earth and destroy any targeted amount of ground he wants and he is also able to manipulate the earth with telekinetic-like precision. He can cause earthquakes, of course, but he’s well-versed on the Richter scale and Boss can simply call out a number and he can give it to her. He can control his earthquakes as well, able to focus on a specific building or area for demolition. Calling his power earth-bending would not be inaccurate, but he also has power over gems and minerals; though it took more work than his earth powers, he <em> can </em> manipulate things like metals even in their purest forms (so it isn’t just finding earth impurities in the metal). His control over vibrations is nuanced to the point of controlling sound, able to mimic a vibrational frequency so long as he's heard/felt it - he can mimic voices and instruments and resonate any material to liquefy it with enough concentration. Always barefoot, he listens to the earth and is able to map out things based on vibrations. He often prefers to wear a special blindfold in battle to eliminate excess stimuli such as his eyes and even his ears because all he really needs is his earth powers to see and even hear. For the sake of identifying color and ease of hearing conversations manually, he does not wear the blindfold at all times.</p><p>[He does <em> not </em> have hydrokinesis and he does not heal from water; he has a fear of water and is not a good swimmer. His fears appear to be affecting his abilities in turn, but when others expect him to be good with water because of his genes, he always gets shy and shuts down. Only Boss knows about this weakness officially, though others may suspect.]</p><p>He has dark hair and brown eyes. Born and made in the labs, Quake is a combination of Neptune and Pluto’s power, primarily Neptune’s though. He’s grown up without his own ambitions beyond fulfilling the obligations given to him by others. Because he was powerful and mastered most of his abilities, he hasn’t had much trauma, but he also hasn’t had much freedom, wants, or fun. He is quiet and observant because he is always listening to details and does not speak unless there is something important he has to say or he is prompted to talk. After meeting Boss, he enjoyed working with her during their early days because she was closer to him than most of his handlers and she was straightforward with how they worked together. Also she was quiet and didn’t speak when she didn’t need to as well. He began to learn what it meant to have something related to a family, and though some of the other team members are louder, he doesn’t believe they are bad.</p><p>He is the most flexible of the group, and also the best dancer. Yes, he can move like a ballet dancer with ease. His power set has been proven most effective by using a multitude of deliberate martial arts styles; being smooth and intentional with his actions bolster his control over his abilities. He has a tendency to speak more with his actions than he does with his words, and some of the observant members of the team can read his messages when he is dancing (recreationally; when training he demonstrates how he can incorporate a dance into a fighting style seamlessly, but sometimes he simply performs the motions without controlling the earth). He will often summon a song that he has in his mind when in combat and project it through any surroundings like a giant speaker, forcing his opponents to move to his rhythm. Though most associate Pestilence with music, Quake is the true instrumentalist and musician who uses music as a weapon. Pestilence has joked that he creates the soundtrack during a human game and is a bard who can hear the boss music. She confused more than half the team trying to explain DnD after that.</p><p>Quake had his vocal cords removed in the Ward Program - or possibly he was created without them on purpose. He cannot speak without the use of his powers, and it is unclear whether the voice he uses was once his own that he has memorized and mimicked or whether he stole it from another and if he evolves it at his own leisure. He is adept at a multitude of non-verbal languages (human and supernatural alike), as while he was in the Wards his powers needed to be restrained and therefore he needed to be taught to communicate by other means. His quiet nature is related to this fact, and the reason that he doesn't talk unless necessary - it's a waste of his powers. Boss is one of the only other members of the team who understands sign language, and so the two exchange quiet conversations frequently, which Quake appreciates.</p><p>He also is a master at meditation and focusing chakras. When someone needs to focus or relax, he is the one who they go to - both for domestic reasons as well as taming and focusing their powers to become stronger. Also they go to him if ever they need dancing lessons for infiltration purposes. His concentration and control over his emotional state is often seen as shyness. He and Boss are often meditating together, and he helps her strengthen her control over her Third Eye ability.</p><p>Quake has found himself very dedicated to Boss and he may love her. He figured out about her condition with her Eye because he is so observant and he’s always watching her as their leader but also as his friend. He worries that she’s going to overstrain herself and harm herself, but he also trusts her to know her limits.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss<br/>-Pain because she was the first member of the team that joined who wasn’t loud and talkative and she’s very confident and collected (someone that Quake looks up to)<br/>-Famine because she is similar to Boss in terms of being very calm and wise and is someone he can talk to (she suspects Quakes feelings for Boss)<br/>-Iota because she isn’t as loud as the others but she does brighten the mood in her own way, specifically accomodating to make others comfortable</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Well he doesn’t really <em> hate </em> anyone…sometimes he gets annoyed, but he doesn’t <em> hate </em> …<br/>-(He’s too shy and controlled to hate anyone)</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Pestilence (Pestilentia) - Apollo (Roman)</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Freebee</b>-</p><p>“Pestilentia” obviously means Pestilence. Yes, it <em> is </em> her real name, and she is very smug about it not being as complicated as Quake’s real name. Hatter takes to calling her ‘Tilly’ because “Pestilence isn’t a name!” and though Pestilence protested, she accepted the nickname after a while and the others have taken to calling her Tilly as well.</p><p>Capable of inflicting any disease or plague upon anyone or anything. She can halt or accelerate the effects of the diseases to stay at any stage and she can cure things regardless of whether she inflicted them or not. She is immune to all infections, toxins, and diseases, and basically anything that is beneficial or detrimental to a living organism she can control from within. Her powers initially were limited to organic beings, but she eventually learned to push her powers to any type of infection regardless of what is being affected - basically, she can also create and control viruses for computers. She can sense poisons and infections that could harm herself or others and she can act as a tactical medic to remove anything harmful from the team. She is not an actual healer and she is not that good with music - she’s pretty average when it comes to music, learning, singing, playing instruments, etc. Though she doesn't consider it anything celestial, she is quick to pick up on hunting skills and is really good with animals - she will walk up to most animals and be able to calm them and even tame them without really thinking about it.</p><p>The first Freebee to have joined the team, she introduced the others to a more casual form of life. When they have free time, she suggests somewhere she wants to go or something she wants to do. The only time that Freebies would be allowed to have the freedom of leaving the Ward system and becoming actual agents is once their loyalty is assured; Freebies are always more difficult to tame because they have expectations of freedom and free will beforehand, and any Freebee that would be allowed their freedom had to have been broken well or insane to have accepted such a lifestyle willingly even knowing what freedom was. Yes, she knows that being blonde targets her as a “dumb-bonde-girl,” and she knows she’s far more girly than Boss with longer hair she usually holds in a pony tail. She is dressed on the more casual side in comparison to the rest of the team - she does not wear armor, or combat suits, or anything fancy; she wears jeans, a shirt, and a jacket and tennis shoes.</p><p>She mostly uses her plague powers, but she is unintentionally a very good hunter, tracker, and navigator. She mostly uses knives for close-range combat if she ever needs to use it and because she uses knives for skinning animals she hunts for food (no need for a sword or anything), but she is constantly teased that she is average to even bad with a bow and arrow. The only reason she ever uses a bow and arrow are to send plagues long-range, and at least she can get it to go in the right direction even if she isn't pinpoint accurate magical with the weapon. Granted she did once make a bet with the boys about who could shoot better and Seven may have helped tip the scales in her favor (*cough* cheat *cough*).</p><p>She instantly hates Hatter for his eccentric and erratic personality, and also the fact that he’s constantly flirting with her. No, she does <em> not </em> reciprocate his feelings. Not at all. She’s given up trying to genuinely stopping Hatter because she knows that getting pissed off is only going to goad him further. Granted she <em> has </em> become adjusted to his nonsense. And he’s not that bad in the long run. He <em> is </em> pretty strategic and looking out for the team despite his joking around. He <em> is </em> kinda cool when he gets serious. BUT JUST BECAUSE SHE TOLERATES HIM DOESN’T MEAN SHE LIKES HIM.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss because she’s a good leader<br/>-Quake because he’s quiet but he’s definitely smart and kind to her<br/>-Pain because she is a fellow Freebee who’s closest to her personality<br/>-Seven because she doesn’t have a crazy personality and she’s not as overpowered as some of their other teammates<br/>-Iota because she’s just nice<br/>-Sandman because he’s at least nice to talk to</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Hatter obviously<br/>-Mirage because he’s just…weird<br/>-War because she’s loud and kinda scary<br/>-Lust because she keeps shipping her and Hatter</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Pain (Algea Dearil) - Nemesis</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Freebee</b>-</p><p>Algea is treated as an epithet similar to Pallas Athena or Phoebus Apollo. The Algea are the deities of pain and suffering(body and mind), grief, sorrow and distress.  “Dearil” means “Call of Death”</p><p>Born unable to feel pain, she naturally reflects any injuries inflicted on her back to the aggressor(s). She can amplify the power of the reflection to any extent she choses. She also can use any self-inflicted pain to bequeath on targets within range, which is why her only weapons are small like a dagger and a single small firearm concealed in her boot. She can turn on and off her ability to feel pain, but she enjoys feeling pain and will rarely ever react negatively. She is <em> not </em> invulnerable or invincible, but she can transfer an injury regardless of how long she’s had it (so she doesn’t need to directly have harm inflicted in order to harm someone). She can inflict the pain that someone has inflicted on another back into them or to someone else regardless of how long ago they inflicted that injury. She can sense people’s desires for revenge or just when others have been wronged or wronged someone. She can sense influences of Nemesis. She can increase people’s desire for revenge.</p><p>[Born a Fury, Pain herself did not know about her ability to transform into a fully Fury-form until she met the original three Furies - Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone - during one of her outings hunting down criminals for the Wards. Because she doesn't have any problems with the Wards' methods, she was allowed plenty of freedom and had time to learn from the Furies about her own abilities. She keeps her origins as a Fury a secret to all but Boss and doesn't use her Fury form because it often causes her to lose most of her senses - as she is still part human and therefore can't handle the power of a full Fury for long]</p><p>She has dark hair braided into two tails and a black beanie with cat ears she values greatly. She wears mostly black with dark blue or purple shirts at most, fingerless gloves, and black nails. Ever since she was given the chance, she got piercings all over - on her eyebrow, nose, lip, chin, many earrings, her tongue, and her belly-button. She wears sharp bracelets that chafe against her skin, a spiked choker, light ballet shoes that aren’t suited to any sort of travel (both because she enjoys or can’t feel pain), and leggings that were torn in multiple places where she cut through them with her weapon. She wears black eyeshadow and lipstick and sometimes has eyeliner that matches her shirt. She doesn’t like a lot of color.Her body is riddled with scars and evidence of harm. She loves scars and finds them beautiful.</p><p>Born a Freebee, her original family was wealthy, but because she was born unable to feel pain, she was very violent and didn’t understand why people didn’t like getting hit hard by blunt objects or bleeding. At one point, she got locked in a room until she learned her lesson, and she was more bored than anything - she did not even feel the pain of hunger or thirst, she just knew that eating and drinking made her feel better and allowed her body to function easier. She was constantly berated for her personality, but she genuinely couldn’t understand what was wrong with herself and what pain was because no one knew her condition and her family simply didn’t care; they only wanted to fix her to fix their reputation. The Wards intervened when her family was trying to send her off somewhere, and she was actually relieved when the Wards taught her about her powers and how to use them and made her life more streamlined, gave her a purpose. Loyal to the Wards almost immediately, she was granted a great deal of freedom and authority from the get-go and intentionally learned to push her powers to their limit without fear. Known as one of the best trackers and crime-seekers in the system, she was quickly granted the freedom to leave the heavily monitored facilities to track down wrongdoers on her own without needing supervision.</p><p>She was initially paired with Hatter before she joined Boss’s team, and she tolerated him for the most part but was happy when he turned his attention to Pestilence. Quake is one of her good friends because he wasn’t as loud as Hatter and they worked well together. She does feel that she’s better sitting in the background unless she’s needed, and she doesn’t have much fear just because she’s not afraid of harm and she doesn’t have anything to lose considering her family gave her no life and the Wards just gave her a stable life - nothing really she values that she’s afraid of losing.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss because she is blunt with her orders and she doesn’t appear to be afraid of pain either<br/>-Quake because he is quiet and doesn’t waste time on speaking when it’s unnecessary; he can often read her thoughts when it comes to their silent planning<br/>-Seven because they both have the most mundane powers of the bunch - no big destructive powers or reality-bending techniques<br/>-War because she enjoys pain too<br/>-Forge because he doesn’t mind getting hurt while he’s building things<br/>-Iota because she’s always open to talking and listens to Pain when she speaks<br/>-Sandman because they talk a lot and Sandman also helps her with sleeping</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Hatter because he’s loud<br/>-Lust because she talks a lot and keeps trying to find someone that Pain likes, but Pain is only in love with pain</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Hatter (Zagreus) - Dionysus</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Zagreus” is an old name comparable to Orphic Dionysus from one of Dionysus’s oldest forms; said to be a child of Hades and Persephone or even just another name for Hades himself, but it is a possible case of misinterpreted gods having similar abilities but accidentally being called the same guy. Orphic Dionysus (think the tale of Orpheus) has some underworld implications, and so by connecting him to Zagreus, it gave him the underworld connections.<br/>“Hatter” comes from the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. He enjoys saying, “Do you know why they call me Hatter? Because I’ll make you mad as one.”</p><p>Has the ability to incite drunken madness within people’s mind, warping people’s thoughts to his own ends. His madness <em> does </em> allow him to control the minds of those he affects, basically possessing them with madness itself. He can summon ivy and grape vines, he can whistle with the pitches and timbre of an actual flute that can drive people mad or just annoy them with it; he gets along with, can control, and can transform inanimate and real objects and people into snakes and dolphins with full control over them (he has a collection of snake friends at all times to some extent, and the others endure his little pets). He himself can summon a partial-lion/bear simply called a 'feral form.'</p><p>He has circular horns like a ram’s in his curly, poofy hair, but otherwise he considers himself very handsome (Pestilence would disagree). He wears a closed cloak that hangs down to his waist that's customized to have lots of pockets and patches for accomodating small snakes. He is very good in social situations and “woo-ing” his way into getting what he wants, though Pestilence is the only one who doesn’t seem impressed - even though her power set really shouldn’t make him resistant to his influence. But he is Dee-termined to get her to like him - it is only a matter of time. Oh yeah, he also has a job, but that’s not as important as winning over Pestilence.</p><p>He <em> is </em> very skilled at fighting and will often aim for surprise and weak points when it comes to fighting. When things get serious, he does fight his hardest to make sure a mission is completed and his allies are safe. He enjoys sparing with Pain and Seven, whose powers are also less directly combat-equipped. Also Sandman, but after Sandy pulled a prank Hatter is still in the denying-his-association stage of their relationship.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Pestilence<br/>-Boss because she tolerates him and actually values his awesomeness; she doesn’t shut him down and gives him jobs too<br/>-Mirage because they both warp perceptions of reality to mess with people, and together they sometimes just go poking fun at random mortals (he <em> does </em> kinda fear Mirage’s power a bit, but meh)<br/>-War because she has a similar personality and she has a Berserker ability that’s similar to his madness abilities but more directed at making the targets fighters explicitly<br/>-Iota because she always laughs at his jokes and mediates between him and Pestilence<br/>-Lust because she ships him with Pestilence and also because they share the common trait of being good in mortal social situations and flirting their way to victory</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Also Pestilence, but in an endearing way<br/>-Seven because she won’t help his luck with Tilly<br/>-Sandman because he makes fun of Hatter’s endless attempts at winning over Pestilence (he once played a prank in Hatter’s dream that Hatter will never speak about)<br/>-Lust because though she ships it she also refuses to help make things easier (or maybe it’s because Pestilence is so serious that even Lust can’t convince her to like Hatter)</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Mirage (Tau) - Hecate/Trivia</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Tau” is a Greek letter; Mirage’s real name is literally “Project Tau,” and they find nothing wrong with this and actually believes that their first name is “Project”</p><p>Mirage has extreme control over the Mist, able to create realistic and solid illusions with ease. It’s very hard to tell the difference between reality and illusion with them. They can transform into pure Mist because their body is <em> made </em> of pure Mist with a consciousness. They can transport/teleport and make things appear and disappear, but regardless of how Mirage can play with physical reality, they <em> cannot </em> internally influence people - their thoughts, their hearts and desires, and their reactions to their perceptions.</p><p>They love playing around with anyone they can, and they were one of the most difficult team members to control. For a few missions after they joined, they didn’t follow orders exactly and even jeopardized a couple missions. Boss had to directly discipline them using her Third Eye to see past Mirage’s illusions and overpower them. Though Boss and Mirage appear to be on better terms after that incident, it’s unclear whether Mirage admires Boss’s power and follows her willingly or if they are bitter about being bested and simply follow her because they have no choice and are simply putting on a smiling and overconfident façade.</p><p>Most of the team don’t understand most of Mirage’s personality, and it’s best to not believe anything is absolute with them. Not a lot of them like or even can tolerate Mirage’s constant uncertainty. Most of Mirage’s illusions can be physical and real for all intents and purposes, but if Mirage gets knocked out, any immediate and recent illusions will revert to normal; Sandman stands one of the best chances of fighting against Mirage’s illusions because he is often sleeping and can knock himself out to see the truth - he can see Mirage manipulating the Mist into shapes and covering up things when he’s using his dream-astral-projection form.</p><p>Sometimes attempts to communicate through gestures and noises when they can’t find a very simple wording to get their point across. They have moments where they don’t understand why others don’t understand what they’re saying and blurts out random syllables and waves their arms around in the shape of what they need. Most of the time, Boss can understand them, but the others have turned it into a game of charades every time it happens and start blurting out nouns and adjectives. They have a counter of who’s gotten it right first.</p><p>Partially inhuman. Mirage is an entirely artificial being made mostly from the Mist, sexless and genderless without a desire to be identified (though most of the time, there will be slip-ups where they are identified with male pronouns and they don’t mind so long as an effort is made to correct the error). Youngest of the three inhumans, they were created only 20 years prior to current times.</p><p>They wear a black and white color pattern: their long hair is split between black and white in multiple patterns (depending on the day they’re having), their lipstick is split completely down the middle between black and white and eye their shadow is gradient, their nails are always black, they have some random black and white markings on their face and body (again, they fluctuate depending on the day they’re having), and their entire wardrobe will always be patterns of black and white (and never gray; they will rant if you suggest gray). Their skin is naturally extremely pale, a ghostly white. They wear a white kosode with a black hakama (basically Japanese robes - white kimono top with big black, baggy pants. Imagine Inuyasha).</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Hatter because he has a similar chaotic personality<br/>-War because ditto with Hatter and she has no qualms about wrecking whatever Mirage puts in her path</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Doesn’t really hate anyone (maybe Boss but it’s unclear) because Mirage doesn’t let anyone know if they hate them<br/>-They are mostly neutral to everyone, but people they like they usually play pranks on and joke around with in a mean way<br/>-They don’t upset very easily, so hating is more like just being more violent to them</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Seven (Renna) - Fortuna</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Renna” means “Little prosperous one”</p><p>Capable of controlling luck and ensuring good or bad events. She can guess the correct password for anything by simply smashing the keyboard/keypad and such. She always carries around a coin - the first thing she learned to control by making it fall precisely on its side. She can take impossible odds and make them a guarantee and vice-versa she can make a guaranteed, known event/fact completely wrong or impossible. She can affect a very wide radius, but she’s only ever controlling a few things at a time. Has the ability to see and manipulate strings of fate (she refers to different types of fate with different colors); playing the strings, cutting them, sewing them together is how she manipulates people and what she mentally visualizes when trying to affect other odds even when strings aren't really at play (likes to play string instruments in her free time as practice). She can literally make anything she wants happen, but often things that are more tightly controlled by the Fates she has more trouble with - so she can't completely manipulate reality itself to her liking all at once. She <em> really </em> pisses off the Fates every time she uses her powers. She can sense possibilities to a light extent, but it’s nothing more interesting than a really good and accurate imagination (though she <em> can </em> know information that she shouldn’t if she focuses hard enough) - she does <em> not </em> have anything close to Boss’s omnipotent Third-Eye, but she can sense when Boss activates it and it nearly debilitates her completely.</p><p>Seven is one of the calmest and more normal of the team, though she does resent having grown up in the Wards and the Facilities having never had a past like some of the other Freebies. She loves considering the odds and the possibilities that could happen, and she’s always asked about an ideal situation if there are two or more paths to the same end goal. Though no one on her team likes to gamble with her (knowing her powers), she does like to go gambling in the human world when she's bored. She’s a Roman, but she sees being Roman the same as being an LK - without freedom, living a military life with a strict routine only built to train her to become a warrior, and she prefers having freedom (what she summarizes the Greeks as in comparison to the Romans). She appreciates that Boss’s team allows her to explore a real life - with Tilly and Pain teaching her about what being a Freebee means.</p><p>She does have a few fears about being weaker than the rest of the team, though her power is extremely strong if she can literally turn the odds of a battle one way or another, regardless of who has what powers. She can make an impossible thing happen if she wills it hard enough, so she really is dangerous if she wants to be. Tilly and Pain are in the same position as her, feeling that their powers are not as strong as Quake being able to demolish an entire city or Mirage being able to manipulate reality itself, but along with Iota the girls form a small support group of friends who support each other and spend their free time together. Famine sometimes joins them, but she’s far quieter and honestly Seven is intimidated by her regal nature. They all make it their goal to try and get Famine to lighten up and be more like a normal person.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss for allowing her more freedom while working under her as opposed to the Wards and the Facilities<br/>-Pestilence because she is one of Seven’s best friends<br/>-Pain because she is one of Seven’s best friends<br/>-War because she sometimes is a part of their little clique too<br/>-Iota because she is one of Seven’s best friends, one of the brightest and happiest members that raises their spirits</p><p>Hates:<br/>-She doesn’t hate <em> all </em> the boys. But she hates most of them. Quake’s okay; Forge just leaves them alone anyway<br/>-Hatter because he’s Hatter, ‘nuff said<br/>-Mirage because he’s so powerful, constantly bugging everyone, and she’s slightly intimidated by them<br/>-Sandman because Seven doesn’t like when he has more control over the world in her dreams</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>War (Urien) - Ares</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Freebee</b>-</p><p>“Urien” was a man that became the King of Gore in Welsh and Arthurian legend</p><p>She is able to incite violence within anyone near her, make even the most peaceful people turn on enemies and allies alike, can create massive paranoia, can make one fight madly, ignoring pain until they die. It is referred to as a Berserker ability. She can also focus this ability to make people more violent but also very strategic at the same time - she can create very adequate war strategies because senseless battle is fun but strategic battle is far more efficient and cruel. She is the main physical fighter of the group, because while most of the team are tacticians, if there’s something that needs to be destroyed (like an army or an empire) War is the one to call because wanton destruction is her thing - she does not rely solely on her strategic powers and more prefers all of her enhanced speed, agility, and strength. Forge makes her weapons and armor to make her even more deadly and she loves him just for that alone.</p><p>War has a very destructive personality, but she <em> is </em> very friendly to her allies, even if she does make a few out-of-place comments that make people feel awkward. She loves it when Boss gives her free reign to destroy everything and everyone during a raid. She is not called in for anything except something that allows wanton destruction, and no one - not her nor anyone who is in charge of her - ever likes to send her on a mission where she needs to hold back and no one likes to be the one to tell her that she can’t fully let loose.</p><p>She does favor Forge as a companion because he's usually got something destructive for her to do and always looks to improve her abilities through his inventing. Even when he has nothing for her to do, she finds herself preferring his company anyway whenever she can get it. She doesn't know <em>why</em>, but that doesn't really matter.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Forge because he gives her everything a girl could want: beautiful weapons for wanton destruction, and she can give him gifts of slaughter victims for spoils of war<br/>-Boss because she always sends her on proper missions and has a team where War is able to be herself<br/>-Quake because the kid’s silent but deadly; she loves it when he destroys an entire area in seconds, it’s just so satisfying<br/>-Pestilence because of her stubbornness<br/>-Pain because she doesn’t fear pain and doesn’t cringe at gruesome deaths like most people<br/>-Hatter because the guy’s mad and that’s awesome<br/>-Mirage because that guy’s even crazier than Hatter and it’s awesome<br/>-Seven cuz she’s not that entertaining but the girl’s a’ight<br/>-Famine cuz the girl’s powerful and uber destructive even if she’s a bit stuck up<br/>-Iota cuz that girl is a little ball of fluff ya just wanna squeeze to death she’s so adorable! She’s the little sis ya’d kill for<br/>-Sandman cuz the kid’s cool</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Lust. Too mellow. Not enough ACTION</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Forge (Kalma) - Hephaestus/Vulcan</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Freebee</b>-</p><p>“Kalma,” among other things, is a goddess of death in Finnish mythology. Name was given to him by War. He doesn't really care what he's called so long as he knows what it is to properly respond to anyone addressing him.</p><p>Wields a large forging hammer capable of remaking anything it touches into any creation he can imagine. He must know precisely how his creation works in order for it to be properly forged, or else it could potentially work wrong or not work at all. He must have matter to work with in order to reforge something and he cannot forge organic matter because he hates biology and doesn’t bother to learn it in order to forge it - yet. [Capable of manipulating the wind and any wind-associated creatures as a result of him being a product of the Anemoi (the Four Winds). Though he abhors organic life and has trouble understanding it at times, he is capable of using the powers of the Four Winds to bring his creations to life if necessary, though he avoids it at all costs because sentient creations have the potential to become unpredictable]</p><p>He enjoys getting his hands dirty when it comes to stealing the spoils of war, including the remains of victims. Everything holds a purpose and a use, so he has minor kleptomania when it comes to everything that he picks up and stores in an infinite storage bag. Enjoys videogames that involve building, particular favorite is Minecraft (yes he hacks the game to meet his needs). He does not particularly care about many things beyond his creations, and though he doesn’t truly have a sense of boredom, he usually prefers to keep his hands and mind busy learning and inventing new things. He follows orders because he sees no reason not to and it gives him something to do and gives him the opportunity to test out new inventions.</p><p>He sometimes writes and communicates in an odd, artificial language that he invented, and it takes him a moment to “translate it into mortal plebeian speech.” Only Boss has cracked his code, though he is constantly challenging himself to try and crack hers.</p><p>He has brown curly hair, tan skin that’s always accompanied by a few layers of soot and grime (which he prefers over being clean), wearing heavy-duty army pants with a multitude of pockets and a basic white T-shirt that is no longer white. His wardrobe and even his appearance are implied to be entirely manufactured as his choice after being given examples of how he should look.</p><p>Partially inhuman; built by both Hephaestus and Vulcan over a great deal of time and brought to life by the four winds (around the same time Pandora was made, but he was one of a couple failures) so he has no designated preference to Greek or Roman and no designated sex (hence why he was a failed Pandora - he was not what Zeus was looking for) though he eventually started going by male pronouns because his personality was deemed more masculine. His companions say that if he cleaned himself up, he would look very doll-like and gender-ambiguous. His body can be repaired and upgraded with his forging hammer, and it is implied that he can't feel pain or can otherwise turn off his negative reaction to it (because he still finds value in pain to figure out if something is wrong).</p><p>Raised in Hephaestus’s workshop as a servant for most of his life (since Hephaestus didn’t know what else to do with him and the other Pandora failures), he learned from his father about building and destroying and ran most errands into the human world for him. He eventually got taken by the Wards during one of his trips, already with his forging hammer, and it got upgraded during his time there as the years went by and he made it his own. The Wards encouraged him to become his own person, a concept that Forge struggled with for a long time - manipulating Forge was both easy and difficult because he was the equivalent of a robot who only followed commands and had only been programmed for servitude in Hephaestus's workshop. Forge is the main reason that the Wards are so technologically advanced in combating the gods and so knowledgable about celestial metals. Eventually he learned curiosity about artificial inventions (a seed planted in him from working with Hephaestus) and how to act upon his thoughts. He learned things through the scientific method and started to develop his character. After that his inventive nature turned him into a neutral ally of the Wards - just helping them because they were helpful to <em>him</em> in turn.</p><p>Dating War, mostly because she provides him with plenty of new bodies and spoils of war to use for his inventing. They have a symbiotic relationship because she’s always eager to smash something up for the sake of getting what Forge wants and he is interested in testing his inventions with a willing participant who isn't afraid of being blown up (and he upgrades her in that regard whenever she is successful as a sort of reward).</p><p>Likes:<br/>-War<br/>-Boss because her mind works just as fast as his<br/>-Quake because he’s not loud and intrusive when Forge is working<br/>-Iota because she helps provide him with electricity for his machines</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Famine because she’s all things organic and he hates things that are organic<br/>-Hatter because he disrupts the method to his madness and just makes everything madness<br/>-Mirage because he’s even worse than Hatter and Forge hates not being able to distinguish reality from fiction<br/>-Sandman because sleep is the enemy of efficiency and work<br/>-Lust because she’s really annoying and talks too much</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Famine (Winter) - Demeter/Ceres</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Freebee</b>-</p><p>“Winter” is the death of nature</p><p>Wields plants of all kinds, often overwhelming opponents with the sheer number of large plants she can summon at once, regardless of the land around her and how accustomed it is for wildlife and plants to grow. She can quickly adapt her plants to any situation, such as absorbing toxins and surviving great temperature fluctuations. She can see through the eyes of any plant and control even small ones from a great distance. Can create most organic materials, even ones that do not normally get produced from plants. Capable of siphoning life energies, allowing her to extend her life as well as the lives of others and sedate the aging process; contrastly, she can shorten the life of another and hasten aging. She can heal others through this method as well and make herself and others immortal. She can change the color, shape, and composition of everything about her body in order to camouflage; she can replicate any organic substance. She is capable of transporting herself long distances and even others by consuming them within a plant and then regrowing the plant elsewhere.</p><p>Her hair is a long, shocking white braid that goes down to her ankles, contrasting her dark skin that feels like bark or grass depending on her mood. She has feeling in her hair, and if someone tugs at it to toy with her, she will react with hostility - from restraining someone to outright killing them. Yes, her hair can grow and unweave itself in order to be used as weapons.</p><p>She is only slightly insecure about not remembering most of her past, but she is otherwise mostly quiet and doesn’t have many opinions; she accepts what she is told, but if something angers her and she disagrees with something, she is very strict, bitter, and harsh. Though she doesn’t remember why, she appears to have good leadership qualities and she understands that some things need to be sacrificed and hard work is necessary for success. She’s a good cook - especially when it comes to using natural ingredients that she grows herself.</p><p>Ambidextrous; can write with both hands, forwards and backwards, in multiple different languages at the same time (knows dozens of languages).</p><p>Partially inhuman; her body is physically made from living plants, which is why she can survive literally getting her head blown off and regrow it and why she can turn her hands into some medicinal plants and pull them off for use.</p><p>[Many thousands of years old, born during the early era of Mycenaean Greece. A creation of Demeter, survived into the Roman era with Ceres so she has no preference for Greek or Roman. She created her own empire up north for demigods specifically, and thanks to her power to create food and heat with her plants regardless of sunlight and the cold temperatures, she ruled her kingdom unopposed and her subjects did genuinely love and revere her. She took in any demigod that came her way and didn’t hold any of them hostage (they were free to leave and spread word of her nation to anyone who needed it). She was powerful enough to not only sustain her kingdom but to also defend it - on her own, and with an empire of demigods who all know how to fight.<br/>Her kingdom was destroyed by Boss and her team before she had joined. The Wards threatened her empire and she made a deal to go with them so long as her empire was left in peace. She left, and her empire was strong enough and filled with enough demigods to sustain itself, but once she had lost her memories and joined the Ward system as a loyal recruit, her nation was ordered destroyed by Boss’s special team. Boss told her about the situation, but without her memories she couldn’t find herself angry or disappointed at the loss.]</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss because of her sureness and leadership skills while also connecting to her team<br/>-Quake because of his calm yet solid demeanor<br/>-Pain because of their shared lack of fear of damage and injury<br/>-Seven because of her decisive nature<br/>-Iota because she’s very nice and cheery</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Hatter because he is just annoying, loud, and talks too much. He can summon ivy, but she considers it a disgrace compared to her plants<br/>-War because she’s so hyper<br/>-Forge because he’s all mechanical, artificial, and nothing organic</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Iota (Pyrae) - Jupiter</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Pyrae” - a shorthand version of Pyraemon, another name for one of the first Cyclopes who formed Zeus’s lightning bolts - Arges - whose name means "bright" and represents the brightness from lightning</p><p>Can control electrical currents of the body, can control machines run by electricity, can use static to move objects telekinetically. She can transform her entire body into lightning easily, and often she spends most of her time up in the clouds when it’s possible because she feels far more free. Maintaining her form as pure electricity is relaxing despite how difficult the technique is, but she uses the ability more to relax and feel free up alone in the clouds rather than actually harm anyone. Air is one of the most resistant insulators to electricity, but Iota can control electricity so precisely and powerfully that she can easily direct a lightning bolt from her fingers through the air without it diverting to the nearest path of least resistance. Can negate or control the abilities of low-level enemies and allies alike; can even influence, read, and organize electrical currents in the brain without doing any noticeable damage.</p><p>She has been training to become strong enough to stand up against Zeus, having been born from a stolen piece of one of the bolts forged by the Cyclopes.</p><p>Iota feels out of place, being a descendant of a king of the gods and being expected to meet his level of power eventually. She is actually very meek and kind to all of her teammates, trying her best to indulge their personalities and make them all happy. She is treated like the little sister of the group. The others know that she likes to be alone in the sky sometimes, and they know about her insecurities about living up to the rest of the team and her “destiny” as a match for the king of the gods.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Pretty much everyone</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Doesn’t really <em> hate </em> anyone necessarily, she’d <em> never </em> say that she <em> hates </em> someone…</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Sandman (Sha Wujing) - Somnos</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Sha Wujing” is the name of a celestial being from the Journey to the West, whose nickname is “Sandy.” Sandman enjoys and prefers being called “Sandy.”</p><p>Capable of manipulating dreams and instantly knocking people out. When in dreams, he can move wherever he wants to spy on events of his choosing using what he calls ‘Astral-Projecting’ and even see some prophetic things from the future and pry into peoples’ past. He can basically read peoples’ thoughts and break through or enhance mental barriers into their minds. He is essential to keeping Gaea out of the team’s minds and for investigating things where they cannot physically go or send something for spying on. All the powers that dreams have - seeing other locations without being seen, delving into memories and prophesying the future, even slowing down or speeding up a perception of time, are all available to him, but he can also bring others across the world wherever he wants and allow them to use celestial powers despite not physically being in the location. Sandy has gotten to the point where he can physically affect the world without being physical himself. He can manipulate dreams and even memories - creating false memories or erasing established ones. With enough practice and willpower, he can even take over and remotely pilot a person's body and their abilities.</p><p>Sandy doesn’t like going anywhere physically, but when he’s Projecting, no one can see or even sense his presence without a sense of omniscience. He prefers to spend time in the dream world where he can manipulate everything (since it’s a dream). Some of his teammates don’t like the idea that he can pry into all of their thoughts and histories and have more control over the world when they’re asleep. It’s nearly as bad as Mirage’s reality-warping powers where it's impossible to trust any of their senses, but in their dreams there’s even <em> less </em> control because that’s how dreams are - it’s hard to sense when things are real, they can’t even feel their bodies or their powers properly, and illogical things get put together into somewhat logical scenarios of a jumbled mess. On top of all the confusion that dreams have, when they wake up, memories of dreams can be foggy. Sandy can help them remember their dreams and make their dreams far clearer and more realistic, but since a mind is so complicated with so many subconscious thoughts, it can tend to overwhelm people when they are actually conscious and/or aware, so he opts to be careful with what he reveals.</p><p>Sandy is on the younger side, with a mass of curly hair (some of his team call it a perm, others call it an afro, but Sandy denies that it counts as either), tan skin, and his face is covered in freckles. He has green eyes that border on brown around the pupil. He can look however he wants to in the dream world, but he doesn’t mind his real-life appearance. He wears a big, comfy, kimono-like robe similar to Mirage’s - mostly because he wants to be able to pass out anywhere without needing to carry around some sort of sleeping set. He is treated like the little brother of the group, and sometimes he feels Boss puts too much faith in him.</p><p>No, he is not <em> always </em> sleeping. But he does whenever he can.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss because she’s a nice leader and lets him sleep (she does creep him out that she can sense him when he’s Projecting though)<br/>-Quake because the kid’s nice and is so focused that he has a good handle on his dreams as well; not afraid of Sandman’s abilities to pry into his head when he’s sleeping<br/>-Pain because she’s nice to talk to<br/>-Seven because she’s not afraid of his power and talks to him as well<br/>-Forge because he has a focused mind and a very straight-forward dreamscape that he may even control better than Sandy; also not afraid of Sandy’s power<br/>-Iota because she’s very nice and easy to talk to even though Sandy can rarely enter her dreams</p><p>Hates:<br/>-Doesn’t really <em> hate </em> Mirage, but the guy <em> does </em> scare him a bit considering they have Sandy’s powers except in the real, waking world; their mind and dreams are a scary place to be since Mirage has no sense of logic or rules<br/>-Doesn’t really <em> hate </em> Famine, but she’s not very easy to talk to and honestly Sandy can’t access her head very easily (she also doesn’t call him “Sandy”)<br/>-Lust because her mind never stops working even in sleep and all she ever does is gush about love and who she ships and happiness and sometimes her mind is just a banquet with loud people all laughing and dancing too much. She affects the dreamscape so intensely because of her power over emotion that it just gives Sandy headaches</p><p> </p><ol>
<li>Lust (Kharity) - Aphrodite</li>
</ol><p>-<b>Lab Kid</b>-</p><p>“Kharity” is a reference to the Kharites, goddesses of grace, beauty, happiness, adornment, splendour, joy, prosperity, mirth, festivity, fame, glory, opulence, dance, and song. Sometimes one of the Kharites is a wife of Hypnos and therefore a goddess of relaxation and hallucinatory drugs. They are often serving Aphrodite or are even mistaken for Aphrodite. They have many different names.</p><p>Has power over emotions. She has a light level of charmspeak, though it is unclear how powerful it really is because she is always very coy and vague about the extent of her abilities to make sure that no one can predict her. She has the ability to summon the powers of all of the Kharites, though she tells others it’s simply emotional manipulation in general. She has multiple faces, and can force people into laughing, dancing, singing, or feeling unnervingly happy no matter the situation. She can put people in a festive mood even in a completely inappropriate setting. She is able to sometimes summon an entire party at her leisure - with all the physical, culturally appropriate staples of a party too (she has made confetti, balloons, drinks, cake, and music speakers appear out of nowhere just to name a few examples and most of her crew don't wanna know how far that power can actually go). She can make people peaceful no matter how angry they are, to the point that they end up ignoring their basic needs and literally sit down and die content (her nickname was a debate between Lust and Sloth. She chose Lust). She can basically read one’s entire personality and mimic it precisely, and with both Mirage and Sandy’s help, she can <em> become </em> other people - physically and mentally.</p><p>She loves to blur the lines between love, hate, and lust and enjoys a good love story - enjoys <em> destroying </em> a good love story. She loves to engineer tragic situations and psychopaths/sociopaths are the only people she really respects. She will make people laugh and giddy at horrific ideas, and she is an avid fan of psychological horror. She is best described as a viper with her calm but cruel personality. She enjoys taunting even her allies, and those who her words can’t affect she abhors and attempts to find any weakness she can. She never gets truly upset, but when she does take things seriously, it’s a sign to take a big step back. She enjoys children because they are often the happiest in society, but she will make them smile and laugh as she kills their parents in front of them (Boss warned her against the killing of mortals a while back). She enjoys making people cheer happily for terrible things. This personality even scares the team at times.</p><p>She does respect those who are sure of themselves and their emotions, but there is definitely a difference between rejecting emotions and being in complete control over them - and she treats the two very differently. If she senses weakness in someone who has proven to be or believes they are in control, she will be a very dangerous entity who will test their resolve to see if she can break them.</p><p>Even if she plays around with people, her main focus is entertainment; depending on both respect and entertainment levels, she will be harmless or very disturbing. You can never be sure with her, and that’s how she likes it.</p><p>She writes down people’s stories for fun, and no, she has no sense of privacy.</p><p>Likes:<br/>-Boss because of her disconnected and absolute personality; she has no doubts or hesitation and isn’t prone to emotional outbursts. She supports Lust and admits she even enjoys Lust’s unpredictable madness<br/>-Quake because the poor thing is standing in a pool of lovesick misery without even flinching; his calm demeanor does frustrate her at times since he doesn’t react to anything emotional<br/>-Pestilence because of her stubborn nature when it comes to her relationship with Hatter - she’s more entertaining than anything else. Personality-wise, Pestilence doesn’t like Lust, but Lust loves playing with Tilly<br/>-Pain because the girl finds enjoyment from things as twisted as pain and torture and shares the same mildly sadistic personaltiy (granted she is asexual and has no interest in love, which frustrates Lust at times)<br/>-Hatter because of his persistence with Tilly and his loose morals and love of making people insane; they share a trait of making people go mad and lose their wits, laughing despite a terrible situation, even if Lust does it in a crueler way (in her opinion)<br/>-Mirage because they are absolutely insane and the two of them get along well; they go out and mess with mortals on a regular basis<br/>-War because she doesn’t care about being nice; not an emotional person, but she finds so much joy from destruction that Lust can’t help but appreciate her (also she finds it hilarious that War is genuinely in love with Forge because of the guy’s weapons)</p><p>Hates:</p><p>-Seven because she’s boring and believes in absolutes and doesn’t like the erratic nature of things like emotions<br/>-Forge because the guy is nearly emotionless and so boring (he does seem to care for War a <em> little </em> , and she doesn’t notice his lack of interest in her, but still, he is unforgivable in her eyes)<br/>-Iota because the girl is just peppy, not many intense emotions and nothing very interesting</p><p> </p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. A Challenge from Victory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m giving a double update as an apology for taking too long to get this out. Online schooling has begun and for Olympus’s sake I don’t want to write an essay on this stupid book. It’s due today, and instead of working on it, here I am, working on my writing.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
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  <strong>Dammit, the response to the review was 152 characters too long to fit in the notes section.</strong>
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  <strong>Arienne: I love speaking with you about things like this to clarify</strong>
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  <strong>First of all, yes, Rei technically has the power of all the deities up to the Primordials. She CAN die of old age, she just has to go long enough without dying and then being revived. Violent deaths are what incite her mother’s power - aka deaths where she is driven to her limit and wishes to continue living. During the earliest days, she had absolutely no control over whether or not her power activated, so even now she just assumes that every time she dies she will be revived. In actuality, if she lives a fulfilled life and actually accepts her death with nothing else she still needs to do, she <em>can</em> end up dying, but every time she is fatally injured and she still has something to do - someone to save, something to defeat, something to protect - she will be revived to her peak health and will stay that way until the power high wears off and she fulfills whatever desire brought her back in the first place. Simply put: in order to kill her, she has to die in peace, which is something that is extremely difficult for her because peace simply isn’t something she feels she can actually have. It was a whole thing in the last book about how having everything she ever wanted would only make her seek out more danger and/or she can never believe that it’s the truth. This is why she is compatible with one Primordial in particular, but not the other side of the coin. Learning to find her peace is what allowed her to gain the power of the second Primordial at the same time as the first, (though we still don’t know how that happened yet). Despite being able to technically tap into the power of Primordials on her own, that kind of power is extremely difficult to tap into and even more difficult to control if she herself is not hosting a Primordial itself. She needs to raise her own personal power level to the height of a Primordial’s before she can use the abilities, and the only time she can ever get that powerful on her own would be after multiple kills with an extreme drive to live (think shonen anime levels of ‘how dare you hurt my friend?!’). It would be like holding up a large weight for an extended period of time - just because a strong guy could lift a record-breaking amount of weight, it would be like then asking him to hold up that weight for a few minutes because obviously since he can lift that weight it means he can hold it up for however long he needs to and whenever he needs to. Not how it works.</strong>
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  <strong>I’m giving you the full information on all of the Ward kids’ powers when this chapter goes up! But just for here - Famine is not some 200 years old. <em>Rei</em> is 200 years old, and she met Famine back in the day, but Famine had been around far longer than that. She led an empire that protected demigods, and Rei was one of many passing demigods that came into her care and eventually left. To also clarify, Kaze is <em>not</em> 200 years old - he and Rei were not raised in the same era, Rei was a wanderer constantly getting captured, getting killed, and escaping and she happened to meet Kaze and ended up bringing him along; she showed him the location of Famine’s empire so that he would know where sanctuary was if ever Rei wasn’t around. Rei took on the power of her first Primordial and Kaze was killed less than 50 years before current events began.<br/></strong>
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  <strong>First off, the horse was something that the person I based Audrey off of wanted. She needed a magical horse. She needed it. She chose the powerset, she wrote the scene where Audrey received the horse and a jacket. But also Audrey is mirroring the same power ups that Veon got - Veon got a lance that helped him fly and enhance his powers, Audrey got a trident to help her fly and enhance her powers. Maybe that was deliberate. Beyond that, the only powers that Audrey has got over Percy are her ability to turn her body into water and boil or freeze water into different states. Her and Percy cannot truly be compared because they are both underdogs in their intended situations - same with Veon and Nico, my intentions were to make them prepared for their respective fates -  but I really do understand your frustration. I hate it when OCs are more powerful than the actual characters and an author purposefully weakens or ignores a regular character’s growth and intelligence to prove how awesome their own character is. I try my best to honor an original author’s characters and delve into their true potential alongside my own characters’. There’s a reason a lot of my characters are tacticians - they have power, but it’s the way they <em>use</em> their powers in unique ways that make them dangerous. I will try to balance out Percy more because I really do respect and love Percy as a character, it’s just that Audrey I wanted to make a more serious character than Percy - she’s not as good as him at keeping the mood light and she doesn’t consider herself a hero, not like Percy is. If she comes off too overconfident or invasive, just know that I base a lot of her off myself and a person I know in real life - we are both insecure as hell and do a really good job of hiding it by overcompensating.</strong>
</p><hr/><p>First Person: Emily</p><p>The gold wings were a bit overkill.</p><p>Leo could dig the chariot and the two white horses; he was okay with Nike’s glittering sleeveless dress (Calypso totally rocked that style, but that wasn’t relevant) and Nike’s piled-up braids of dark hair circled with a gilded laurel wreath. Her expression was wide-eyed and a little crazy, like she’d just had twenty espressos and ridden a roller coaster, but that didn’t bother Leo. He could even deal with the gold-tipped spear pointed at his chest.</p><p>But those <em> wings </em> - they were polished gold, right down to the last feather. Leo could admire the intricate workmanship, but it was too much, too bright, too flashy. If her winds had been solar panels, Nike would’ve produced enough energy to power Miami. My glasses - which darkened into sunglasses depending on the lightning - were darkened to their peak and still I could barely see.</p><p>Forge sighed and stood, dropping his controllers and picking up his forging hammer, causing the electronics to dissolve into stones and rubble that matched the ruins around us. He stared at Nike without being bothered by the light. Famine seemed oddly calm at seeing the victory goddess, and for some reason, sensing her made me feel unnerved.</p><p>“Lady,” Leo said, “could you fold your flappers, please? You’re giving me a sunburn.”</p><p>“What?” Nike’s head jerked towards him like a startled chicken’s. “Oh…my brilliant plumage. Very well. I suppose you can’t die in glory if you are blinded and burned.”</p><p>She tucked in her wings. The temperature dropped to a normal hundred-and-twenty-degree summer afternoon.</p><p>Frank stood very still, sizing up the goddess. His backpack hadn’t yet morphed into a bow and quiver, which was probably prudent. He couldn’t have been too freaked out, because he’d avoided turning into a giant goldfish. Hazel was having trouble with Arion; the roan stallion nickered and bucked, avoiding eye contact with the white horses pulling Nike’s chariot. As for Percy, he held his magic ballpoint pen like he was trying to decide whether to bust out some sword movies or autograph Nike’s chariot.</p><p>Forge looked ready to swing his hammer if he was given the command. Kaze’s electronic glasses had dimmed into sunglasses as well and were just recovering, but his hand was in his pocket, probably gripping something, and his legs were staggered, ready to take off at a moment’s notice - literally.</p><p>Famine was probably most interesting, because she was very calm. Forge, I could feel his eagerness to get this over with, but Famine looked like she was ready to have a peaceful conversation, maybe inform Nike of some tips on driving. Her lips even curled into a subtle smile.</p><p>I realized that none of the others were good at the whole <em> talking </em> thing - they usually left that to Piper and Annabeth. Somebody had better say something before we all died in glory.</p><p>“Uh…” I began. “So…I didn’t get the briefing, and I’m pretty sure the information wasn’t covered in Frank’s pamphlet. Could you tell us what’s going on here?”</p><p>Nike’s wide-eyed stare was unnerving. Leo looked down at his nose wondering if it was on fire. That happened sometimes when he got stressed.</p><p>“We must have victory!” the goddess shrieked. “The contest must be decided! You have come here to determine the winner, yes?”</p><p>Frank cleared his throat. “Are you Nike or Victoria?”</p><p>Both Famine and Forge turned to Frank with deadpan glares. Not a good question, Frank.</p><p>“ARGGHH!” The goddess clutched the side of her head. Her horses reared, causing Arion to do the same.</p><p>The goddess shuddered and split into two separate images, which reminded Leo - ridiculously - of when he used to lie on the floor in his apartment as a kid and play with the coiled doorstop on the baseboard. He would pull it back and let it fly: ‘<em> Sproing! </em>’ The stopper would shudder back and forth so fast it looked like it was splitting into two separate coils. That’s what Nike looked like: a divine doorstop, splitting in two.</p><p>On the left was the first version: glittery sleeveless dress, dark hair circles with laurels, golden wings folded behind her. On the right was a different version, dressed for war in a Roman breastplate and greaves. Short auburn hair peeked out from the rim of a tall helmet. Her wings were feathery white, her dress purple, and the shaft of her spear was fixed with a plate-sized Roman insignia - a golden SPQR in a laurel wreath.</p><p>“I am Nike!” cried the image on the left.</p><p>“I am Victoria!” cried the one on the right.</p><p>I could only describe it as the saying, ‘<em> talking out of the side of your mouth. </em>’ This goddess was literally saying two different things at once. She kept shuddering and splitting, making me dizzy. She was giving out waves of enraged energies, conflicting back and forth painfully and amplifying on itself over and over.</p><p>Leo was tempted to get out his tools and adjust the idle on her carburetor, because that much vibration would make her engine fly apart.</p><p>“I am the decider of victory!” Nike screamed. “Once I stood here at the corner of Zeus’s temple, venerated by all! I oversaw the games of Olympia. Offerings from every city-state were piled at my feet!”</p><p>“Games are irrelevant!” Victoria yelled. “I am the goddess of success in battle! Roman generals worshipped me! Agustus himself erected my altar in the Senate House!”</p><p>“Ahhhh!” both voices screamed in agony. “We must decide! We must have victory!”</p><p>Arion bucked so violently that Hazel was thrown. Kaze rushed to her aid and caught her, but before she could calm him down, the horse disappeared, leaving a vapor trail through the ruins. Kaze set Hazel on her feet, but when he nodded if he should go after the stallion, Hazel shook her head.</p><p>I put my hands together and took a deep breath. I blew a breath of fresh air across the area, clearing the air of the goddess’s violent aura that was practically cooking the air with microwaves. A bubble of wind pushed in all directions, making it easier to breathe and at least getting the goddess(es) to stop writhing in pain and screaming with their exponentially amplifying rage.</p><p>“Oh thank Hera,” Leo sighed. “Or thank Em, really. It was getting intense there.”</p><p>“Nike,” Hazel said, stepping forward slowly, “you’re confused, like all the gods. The Greeks and Romans are on the verge of war. It’s causing your two aspects to clash.”</p><p>“I know that!” The goddess shook her spear, the tip rubberbanding into two points. “I cannot abide unresolved conflict! Who is stronger? Who is the winner?”</p><p>“Lady, nobody’s the winner,” Leo said. “If that war happens, everybody loses.”</p><p>“<em> No winner? </em> ” Nike looked so shocked, Leo was pretty sure his nose <em> must </em> be on fire. “There is always a winner! <em> One </em> winner. Everyone else is a loser! Otherwise victory is meaningless. I suppose you want me to give certificates to all the contestants? Little plastic trophies to every single athlete or soldier for <em> participation? </em> Should we all line up and shake hands and tell each other, “ <em> Good game? </em> ” No! Victory must be real. It must be earned. That means it must be rare and difficult, against steep odds, and defeat <em> must </em> be the other possibility.”</p><p>“There <em> will </em> be victory,” Forge said. “There <em> will </em> be loss.”</p><p>“But if <em> you </em> don’t start agreeing on the competition, <em> no one </em> will win or lose,” Famine continued. “Your very conflict is preventing a winner or a loser. Either work together and find a loser together or <em> you </em> will be the loser.”</p><p>The goddess’s two horses nipped at each other, as if getting into the spirit.</p><p>“The real war is against Gaea,” Leo followed.</p><p>“He’s right,” Hazel agreed. “Nike, you were Zeus’s charioteer in the last war with the giants, weren’t you?”</p><p>“Of course!”</p><p>“Then you must know Gaea is the real enemy. We need your help to find victory over her. This war isn’t between the Greeks and the Romans.”</p><p>Victoria roared, “The Greeks must perish!”</p><p>“Victory or death!” Nike wailed. “One side must prevail!”</p><p>“But it’s…it’s…” I wracked my brain for the perfect way to turn the victory goddess’s desires to our advantage. The best way to handle such a passionate creature and get them on our side would be to turn their passions against our enemies. “I-It’s far too <em> small </em> a victory! I mean, <em> just </em> Greeks and <em> just </em> Romans? What about a conflict between mortals and the ancient gods - a Primordial battle against the very earth we stand on! The odds are against it, but the underdogs will band together to triumph against the…odds.” I tried to be careful with my wording as to not anger her any further by aiming at the wrong target. “A-And…and the <em> second </em> war with the giants! You must be the king’s charioteer once more! You need to pull yourself together and win victory from the hands of defeat for your leader’s honor!” I was careful not to say Zeus or Jupiter to make sure that the goddess didn’t spaz out again.</p><p>“Yes! We must attain victory! We will defeat the enemy! Victory!”</p><p>“For Zeus!” “For Jupiter!”</p><p>“For VICTORY!”</p><p>“Uh, did that work?” Leo asked.</p><p>“Not really sure…” Percy admitted.</p><p>Frank grunted. “I get enough of this from my dad screaming in my head.”</p><p>Victoria glared down at him. “A child of Mars, are you? A praetor of Rome? No true Roman would spare the Greeks. I cannot abide to be split and confused - I cannot think straight! Kill them! Win!”</p><p>“Not happening,” Frank said, though I could see his eye twitching.</p><p>My own muscles were tense again as the goddess’s aura that was directed at a common goal split again. She was more focused on the conflicts in front of her, and a war against Gaea and the giants was beyond her proper focus at the moment. She needed an enemy right in front of her. Nike was sending off waves of tension, setting our nerves on fire. I felt like I was crouched at the starting line, waiting for someone to yell “Go!”</p><p>I could feel Leo’s irrational desire to wrap his hands around Frank’s neck, which was stupid, since his hands wouldn’t even <em> fit </em> around Frank’s neck.</p><p>“Right, lady,” Famine said.</p><p>I realized that through all the waves of tension, Famine was entirely relaxed. She was more amused by the situation than riled up. Forge was also so calm that I couldn’t even sense his emotions in the chaos that was the heavy air of conflict.</p><p>“Like I said, you’ll have your victory. Just calm down and stop screaming, will you?”</p><p>“She’s off-setting my harmonics,” Forge complained, sticking his pinky in his ear. “She’s almost worse than War when she and Lust get into an argument.”</p><p>“You! A creature of organic life against a creature of artificial life! A powerful conflict! Perfect! There can only be one! You will fight for superiority!”</p><p>The two glanced at each other before shrugging.</p><p>“Sure.”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“Let’s go.”</p><p>“I hate this guy.”</p><p>“She’s insufferable.”</p><p>They said that, and I could sense them eager to kick each other’s asses, but they were also so calm. Was this a part of a plan to trick the goddess by actually fighting and giving her what she wanted…? Actually…that might not be a bad idea.</p><p>“Look! Miss Victory…” Percy interjected, trying for a smile. “We don’t want to interrupt your crazy time. Maybe you can just finish this conversation with yourself, resolve this little conflict between these guys, and we’ll come back later, with, um, some bigger weapons, and possibly some sedatives.”</p><p>The goddess brandished her spear. “You will determine the matter once and for all! Today, <em> now </em>, you will decide the victory! Six more of you? Excellent! We will have teams. Perhaps girls versus boys!”</p><p>Hazel looked unamused. “Uh…no.”</p><p>“Shirts versus skins!”</p><p>“Definitely no.”</p><p>“Greeks versus Romans!” Nike cried. “Yes, of course!” She jabbed her spear at Kaze. “You will be Greek!” She jabbed her spear at me. “You will be Roman! Three and three! How about…<em> you </em> will be Roman!” She turned her weapon towards Famine. “And you will be Greek!” She pointed at Forge. “Perfect! Four and four! You will each be in charge of your teams of three demigods. The last demigod standing wins. The others will die gloriously.”</p><p>A competitive urge pulsed through my body. It took all my effort not to grab my dagger and tackle Leo to stab his eyes out. I took another deep breath and cooled the air as best I could, but now that the goddess was focusing on a common goal, her two sides were no longer conflicting with each other and just giving off excess competitive waves - they were directing their efforts personally at riling us all up.</p><p>I realized just how good an idea it was to have not sent anyone whose parents had natural rivalries. If Jason were here, he and Percy would probably already be on the ground, bashing each other’s brains out.</p><p>Famine smacked me on the back and I suddenly jolted from her calm aura knocking me to my senses. “Hey, don’t let it get to you, kiddos. Nothing wrong with a good battle, eh?”</p><p>She whacked Hazel and Frank on their shoulders too, starling them enough to help them focus, while Forge was doing the same to Leo and Percy before taking out a cigar and flicking it against his forging hammer and lighting it before slipping it into his mouth. He leaned against his hammer’s handle that was as tall as he was, looking chill even <em> without </em> the tobacco. I wouldn’t have believed it if the physical contact Famine gave me hadn’t washed over my emotional senses and calmed me down to her level of senses. She was…so serene. She hated and abhorred Forge and everything he stood for; they were basically <em> built </em> to be opposites. And yet they were just…empty. Not in an emotionless way, but in a…meditative way. Forge was like Festus, a living machine that had its own thoughts and life despite being as efficient and blank as a machine. But Famine…</p><p>Wait a minute, her speech! She just spoke like a normal person rather than her aristocratic talk from before. Ever since Nike had appeared, she’d been speaking casually.</p><p>Leo used Forge’s distracting whack to try and regain control. “Look, lady, we’re not going to go all <em> Hunger Games </em> on each other. Isn’t going to happen.”</p><p>“But you will win a fabulous honor!” Nike reached into a basket at her side and produced a wreath of thick green laurels. “This crown of leaves could be yours! You can wear it on your head! Think of the glory!”</p><p>“Make it out of pure gold if I win and you’ve got a deal,” Forge said.</p><p>“Laurels will suffice for me,” Famine said flatly.</p><p>“Obviously the prize will accommodate the victor,” the goddess said defensively, as though she was offended they’d even suggest otherwise. “A proper victory deserves a proper reward! The winning demigod will receive their own as well and their patron will receive their custom wreath!”</p><p>“Ooo, we’re patrons now.” Forge blew a small billow of smoke to the side. “I feel so official.”</p><p>“Leo’s right,” Frank said, though his eyes were fixed on the wreath. His expression was a little too greedy for comfort. “We don’t fight each other! We fight giants. You should help us.”</p><p>“Very well!” The goddess raised the laurel wreath in one hand and her spear in the other.</p><p>Percy and Leo exchanged looks. “Uh…does that mean you’ll join us?” Percy asked. “You’ll help us fight the giants?”</p><p>“That will be part of the prize,” Nike said. “Whoever wins, I will consider you an ally. We will fight the giants together, and I will bestow victory upon you. But there can only be one demigod winner. The others must be defeated, killed, destroyed utterly, and their patron must resign their immortality to the other! So what will it be, demigods? Will you succeed in your quest, or will you cling to your namby-pamby ideas of friendship and ‘<em> everybody wins </em>’ participation awards?”</p><p>Percy uncapped his pen. Riptide grew into a Celestial bronze sword. Instead of turning his blade on us, he pointed his weapon at Nike. “What if we fight <em> you </em> instead?”</p><p>“Ha!” Nike’s eyes gleamed. “If you refuse to fight each other, you shall be persuaded!”</p><p>Nike spread her golden wings. A dozen metal feathers fluttered down on either side of the chariot. Forge reached out and snatched a couple up before they fell to the ground. The rest of the feathers twirled like gymnasts, growing larger, sprouting arms and legs, until they touched the ground, each armed with a golden spear and a Celestial bronze laurel wreath that looked suspiciously like a barbed-wire Frisbee. Nike began flapping her golden wings, sending more feathers free to begin summoning more of her warriors. We were quickly outnumbered.</p><p>“To the stadium!” the goddess cried. “You have fifteen minutes to prepare! Then blood shall be spilled!”</p><p>I could feel Leo’s question, ‘<em> What if we refuse to go to the stadium? </em>’ He got his answer before asking the question.</p><p>“Run!” Nike bellowed. “To the stadium with you, or my Nikai will kill you where you stand!”</p><p>The metal ladies unhinged their jaws and blasted out a sound like a Super Bowl crowd mixed with feedback. They shook their spears and charged us.</p><p>I admit that panic seized me and I took off with the other demigods. Since all of us were instinctively running, I at least knew that I wasn’t alone. Kaze was the only one of us who stayed behind, dashing around the Nikai and drawing his shuriken to throw at them from behind. His weapon clanged off the metal women, and half of them turned back to pursue him.</p><p>Nike’s chariot took off, her wings spread as she left a wave of feathers that transformed into more Nikai in her wake.</p><p>Forge flinched from the sound of the Nikai screams and his cigar fell to the stones beneath him. “Ugh, I’m beginning to hate this mission.”</p><p>He raised his forging hammer and swung at the first charging metal lady. The sound resonated like he had hit a giant bell as he bashed the metallic woman. They closed in fast enough that Forge couldn’t just whack them all one at a time, so a single swing of his hammer knocked at least half a dozen of them back. Famine punched the Nikai with her bare fists at first, hitting them with more than enough force to bash them, but as they descended, her hands and arms burst into vines that wrapped around the Nikai and threw them away. They bit and clawed and attacked the two of them, but Forge seemed mostly immune to their sharp weapons and Famine’s vine arms only bled a green ooze and she healed extremely quickly. She summoned a large wave of plants that quickly and easily restrained their attackers, but Nike was swirling around them with her chariot, summoning more Nikai and seemingly getting a kick out of it.</p><p>Meanwhile some of her Nikai were charging after the rest of us, sweeping behind us in a loose semicircle, herding us to the northeast. All the tourists had vanished. Perhaps they’d fled to the air-conditioned comfort of the museum, or maybe Nike had somehow forced them to leave.</p><p>I wondered where we were supposed to be going, but considering the Nikai were forcing us to sprint at top speed, there was no room to ask. We were tripping over stones, leaping over crumbled walls, dodging around columns and informational placards.</p><p>I turned and looked over my shoulder, seeing Famine and Forge were getting overwhelmed by the Nikai numbers - Nike wasn’t running out of them any time soon. I didn’t see where Kaze had gone.</p><p>Focusing myself against the terror-inducing screams of the Nikai (it seems that their metal screams were specifically having that effect) I stopped, pivoted on my foot, and began sprinting in the opposite direction: straight towards our pursuing Nikai. Their screeches grew louder and their wide mouths were more than unsettling, but I could control emotions, and I focused my efforts on my goal - get in, get out. I dived through two of the Nikai as they closed in, rolling to continue my momentum and sprinting back to where Forge and Famine were fighting.</p><p>They were surrounded by Nikai piling onto them. I shoved through the line of Nikai, using the surprise to my advantage to grab Famine’s arm and Forge’s wrist. I pulled them free from the conflict and then began running again. I felt them stumbling, but they were running after me rather than being dead weight at least. No time to look back, I sprinted towards the Nikai that were going after the others.</p><p>“Why did you do that?!” Forge shouted.</p><p>“Shut up and run!” I screamed, my voice raspy from my heavy breathing.</p><p>The plan was to shove straight through the line of Nikai, but Kaze’s shuriken came slashing through and bashed the entire line, dazing them and allowing us to run through. I was prepared to thank him, but he suddenly grabbed Famine and Forge from my hands while running at me from in front and then making a U-turn, allowing me to grab onto him despite his speed because I was facing him and his momentum was pressing me up against him as he ran. He sprinted toward a kind of trench between two earthen walls with a stone archway above. It was like one of those tunnels that football teams run through when they enter the field. I realized that it was the entrance to the old Olympic stadium - the crypt.</p><p>The others were running for it as well, and that seemed to be the direction that the Nikai - and Nike herself now that she wasn’t distracted - were herding us for. Kaze sprinted into the tunnel and then came to a sudden stop, throwing me off from the force, but thankfully he knew about my invincibility and knew I wouldn’t be harmed.</p><p>“Sorry,” he still said.</p><p>Beyond having the wind knocked out of me when I was already struggling for breath, I was quickly recovering. “It’s okay.”</p><p>“Hold it!” Hazel yelled as the others passed the arch of the tunnel.</p><p>They stumbled to a stop - Percy doubled over, wheezing. We’d noticed that Percy seemed to get winded more easily these days, probably because of that nasty acid air he’d been forced to breathe in Tartarus. I made a note to help heal him and Annabeth of that.</p><p>Kaze dropped Famine and Forge, who he’d been dragging literally by their arms. Forge’s arm was dislocated, but he seemed more miffed about it than anything else - his freaking forging hammer was still in the grip of his dislocated arm. He sat up, crossing his legs, and snapped his arm back into place with a metallic popping ‘<em> Clank! </em>’</p><p>“Dude…what the heck?” Percy panted. His face was contorted in a mixture of exhaustion and confusion.</p><p>“He’s made of metal,” Leo explained. “Noticed it when he whacked me.” Leo slapped his arm for emphasis, still regaining his breath. “Couldn’t be sure if it was just your arm or your whole body, but I guess I have the answer.”</p><p>“You’d <em> know </em> that if you’d even glanced at Emily’s report from Pain,” Hazel scolded.</p><p>“Again, you expect…me to have read that thing?”</p><p>“Maybe while you were waiting for us after searching the museum.”</p><p>I knelt beside Famine, whose arm was also dislocated, but <em> she </em> was definitely organic. Luckily, her body was made mostly of plants, so it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Humans were surprisingly delicate at times, and based on her neutral reaction and lack of pain, I speculated that her body didn’t have proper nerve endings that would translate to pain.</p><p>“Are you okay?” I summoned my healing fire to my palm and reached out to grab her arm.</p><p>She was wearing a completely white outfit that matched her hair with light blue accessories. It looked like a regal uniform, something you’d see in a video game. Her body was covered in cuts from the Nikai, and her blood was a dark, viscous green like tree sap. Some of the white markings on her dark skin were disrupted by the injuries. While Forge literally tapped his finger against his forging hammer and surrounded himself in the purple magic aura to repair his mechanical body, Famine still needed some manual healing.</p><p>She hissed and flinched away, a wave of instinctive fear sending a shiver down her spine so strong that it backfired into me. <em> Laughing. The sound of clinking glasses. Jingling jewelry. The sharp tang of wine on my tongue. A deep voice taunting. The thud as the body hit the carpet </em>. Her body seized and she swatted me away violently. My fire had already absorbed into her body and was healing her from inside out. I could sense that she wasn’t afraid, but it was like when the doctor hit your knee to provoke the reflexive kick while you tried to intentionally resist - it was almost pain and pure reflex; nothing sinister.</p><p>“I’m fine.” Her voice was flat and devoid of anger, at least. “This is nothing, really. You underestimate me.”</p><p>Her dark blood absorbed back into her skin and her cuts began to heal. I sensed her energies swirling around. While most of her power was hidden beneath the surface, just feeling a taste of it as she healed herself was enough to convince me that she was more than fine. But there was also something wrong. I couldn’t put it into words, but there was just…something off.</p><p>“Are you <em> sure </em> you’re okay?”</p><p>“Of course.” Her arm popped seamlessly into place, the vines making up her arm pulling it back into place.</p><p>“Why do that?” I asked. “You were getting overwhelmed, but I have a feeling you could’ve easily escaped or defeated them on your own.”</p><p>“Why try and save us?” she retaliated.</p><p>I couldn’t help my light smile. “Friend of mine always says, ‘You answer a question with a question, it means you’re evading.’”</p><p>She blinked. “I suppose that <em> is </em> true.”</p><p>There it was again. That odd blip on my radar that just felt off. Not <em> wrong </em> , but not <em> right </em>.</p><p>Frank peered back the way we’d come cautiously. “I don’t see them anymore. They disappeared.”</p><p>“Did they give up?” Percy asked hopefully.</p><p>Kaze’s eyes scanned the ruins. “No. They simply herded us where they wanted us. I feel them, watching us for if we run.”</p><p>“What <em> were </em> those things, anyway?” Leo asked. “The Nikettes, I mean.”</p><p>“Nikettes?” Frank scratched his head. “I think it was <em> Nikai </em> , plural, like <em> victories. </em>”</p><p>“Yes.” Hazel looked deep in thought, running her hands along the stone archway. “In some legends, Nike had an army of little victories she could send all over the world to do her bidding.”</p><p>“Like Santa’s elves,” Percy said. “Except evil. And metal. And really loud.”</p><p>“Emphasis on the <em> loud </em> part,” Forge muttered, his fingers in his ears as he tried to clean them out. “They even interfere with my frequency. Ugh.”</p><p>Hazel pressed her fingers against the arch, as if taking its pulse. Beyond the narrow tunnel, the earthen walls opened into a long field with gently rising slopes on either side, like seating for spectators. It probably would’ve been an open-air stadium back in the day - big enough for discus-throwing, javelin-catching, naked shot-put, or whatever else those crazy Greeks used to do to win a bunch of leaves.</p><p>“Ghosts linger in this place,” Hazel murmured. “A lot of pain is embedded in these stones.”</p><p>Kaze put his hand on the stones before wincing. “Ach!” He muttered some curses in Japanese. “Many deaths, anger, hatred. Many die here who do not accept.”</p><p>“Please tell me you have a plan,” Leo said. “Preferably one that doesn’t involve embedding my pain in the stones.”</p><p>Hazel’s eyes were stormy and distant, the way they’d been in the House of Hades - like she was peering into a different layer of reality. “This was the players’ entrance. Nike said we have fifteen minutes to prepare. Then she’ll expect us to pass under this archway and begin the games. We won’t be allowed to leave until only one of us remains. But what was all that about patrons?”</p><p>“She wants us to be patrons to represent your respective sides.” Forge swept his hand through his hair before pulling out another cigar and lighting it on his forging hammer’s magic aura. “Famine and I came here because the two of us are in conflict as equals and opposites. We figured fighting in front of Nike would distract her. A battle between the two of us can get pretty heated, so all we needed to do was surround her during the conflict and then trap her. Easy.”</p><p>“So you <em> are </em> here to capture her?” I asked.</p><p>“A rampant victory goddess is detrimental to all parties who hope to attain any goal,” Famine said. “Upon the discovery of her condition during our venture in Ithaca, we were inclined to act with due haste. However, while Forge and I are ideal candidates to provoke the goddess into subjugation, we are not enemies. To equate our being to the stones that preside among these ruins would not be inaccurate.”</p><p>“So you needed us to attract Nike for you.”</p><p>“Precisely.”</p><p>“We were trying something with Minecraft,” Forge admitted. “Famine isn’t even a sore loser. She’s just a <em> boring </em> loser.”</p><p>“If you refer to my methods of resenting your foolish game, and foolish lifestyle, then I accept your demeaning opinion.”</p><p>Percy sighed, leaning on his sword. “Speaking of foolish games, I’m pretty sure death matches weren’t an Olympic sport.”</p><p>“Well, they are today,” Hazel murmured. “But I might be able to give us an edge. When we pass through, I could raise some obstacles on the field - hiding places to buy us some time.”</p><p>Frank frowned. “You mean like on the Field of Mars - trenches, tunnels, that kind of thing? You can do that with the Mist?”</p><p>“I think so. Nike would probably <em> like </em> to see an obstacle course. I can play her expectations against her. But it would be more than that. I can use any subterranean gateway - even this arch - to access the Labyrinth. I can raise parts of the Labyrinth to the surface.”</p><p>“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Percy made a time-out sign. “The Labyrinth is <em> bad </em>. We discussed this.”</p><p>“Hazel, he’s right.” Leo remembered all too well how she’d led him through the illusionary maze in the House of Hades. They’d almost died every six feet. “I mean, I know you’re good with magic, but we’ve already got dozens of screaming Nikettes to worry about-”</p><p>“I can do it,” Forge announced. All eyes went on him. “If you need a labyrinth that’s not as unpredictable as <em> the </em> Labyrinth - one that’s entirely under my control - I can make one. Besides, cover during a battle makes it more interesting. I agree that we need something to add some flavor to the fight. Go with parts of your plan, Hazel, but leave the labyrinth to me. Your magic is like Mirage’s, I can work with that. You tell me what you need by manipulating the Mist and I can get the labyrinth to show you what you need. Use your magic for anything else. You and I are on opposite teams, yes? I am the Greek side, Famine is the Roman side. Hazel and I will keep in contact and use the playing field to our advantage. Famine, you and I will need to make the biggest show.”</p><p>“I know.” Famine nodded. “I can summon a large tree whose roots will reach across the entire labyrinth. It can give us some cover as well. We just need to put on a show while we take care of the Nikai and then close in on Nike herself. Meaning all of you need to play your parts.”</p><p>Percy exhaled through his nose. I could sense his frustration. “Twice now, I’ve been forced to fight in stadiums - once in Rome, and before that <em> in </em> the Labyrinth. I hate playing games for people’s amusement.”</p><p>“Only <em> twice? </em> ” Forge scoffed. “Weak. Try being raised in a place where your entire <em> existence </em> is for people’s amusement. Not speaking from experience, but I expected you to have this problem more often - as a hero and all.”</p><p>“It’s not fun,” I agreed. “But we have to put Nike off guard. We’ll pretend to fight until we can neutralize those Nikettes - uh, <em> Nikai </em>. Then we subdue Nike like Juno said.”</p><p>“Makes sense,” Frank agreed. “You felt how powerful Nike was, trying to put us at each other’s throats. If she’s sending out those vibes to all the Greeks and Romans, there’s no way we’ll be able to prevent a war. We’ve got to get her under control.”</p><p>“And how do we do that?” Percy asked. “Bonk her on the head and stuff her in a sack?”</p><p>Kaze smiled. “You are not far off.” He began pulling things out of his pockets.</p><p>Leo rubbed his hands together as his mental gears started to turn. “Uncle Leo brought some toys for all you good little demigods. Let’s have some fun. How much time do we have left?”</p><hr/><p>“You sure you’re okay?” I asked again.</p><p>“Why do you persist on questioning my health?” Famine asked.</p><p>Leo and Kaze were handing around gadgets and explaining what all the buttons did. Forge made comments here and there about the plan, working with both Hazel and Leo with a bored face. While Leo was lecturing Frank and Percy on Archimedean mechanics, Hazel stared at the stone archway and muttered under her breath. They decided to make a combination of Hazel’s initial plan with the Labyrinth and Forge’s labyrinth keeping them safe from the real Labyrinth’s dangers.</p><p>None of them looked happy to be taking orders from Forge, and quite honestly I could feel the tension. Both Forge and Famine radiated an uneasy feeling of danger and power. While Pain was simply different because of her odd affiliation with pain, these two were undoubtedly more intense. At the same time, they were blending in with us, easily taking the emotional confusion around Nike’s aura to push their own agendas - making it seem rather normal to be working with them. It wasn’t evil charmspeak, but it was something about the…calm aura they held.</p><p>The eye of the storm.</p><p>But for some reason, I kept feeling a leap, a zap. Like lightning, swirling in the clouds, appearing and disappearing, always in the corner of your eye but gone before you can catch it. Only in Famine though. Forge was like Festus, just with less fire and more…a cool breeze that was breathing life into him just as the Fire of Life did to Leo’s robot dragon. Famine was a storm, and I couldn’t tell if there was danger in it or not since she herself didn’t seem to notice. An innocent-looking storm could become torrential if you didn’t take it seriously enough.</p><p>Connecting with Leo’s head and thinking his thoughts were more than enough for me to be briefed, and Famine hated all things invent-y (stating that she’d place her plants everywhere in order to keep track of everyone’s progress), so we were both keeping watch for Nike’s signal. I kept sensing the…<em> thing </em> within her, and it <em> must </em> be bothering her. Her mind seemed pensive as well, and I began to wonder why she and her team were <em> really </em> looking to capture Juno and now Nike. Their team didn’t seem <em> bad </em> - at least not as bad as the descriptions of the Wards and the Facilities had led me to believe. I could feel Rei, Kaze, and Azrael’s distress at remembering where they had come from, but I didn’t sense any of that from the few members of this team that I’d met so far.</p><p>“I just…I sense something on you, that’s all,” I shrugged.</p><p>“In what manner?”</p><p>“I…okay, when people are frustrated or competitive <em> normally </em> I get this specific sense from them, but when Nike is inspiring rage and competition, it’s a different… <em> tang </em> , if that makes any sense. In the same way, I sense that you’re…well, you’re fine. But…there’s also another <em> tang </em> on you that keeps popping up. I don’t…it’s not outright <em> bad </em> , but it just feels <em> off </em>.”</p><p>“I am fine.” Famine held out her hand. The skin on her palm was a lighter, milk-chocolate color as compared to the dark chocolate of the rest of her skin. “Say, about your fire-”</p><p>“Oh! About that, I’m sorry. I should’ve considered that you’re plant-based and fire might scare you. But my fire is healing.” I pulled out a necklace from beneath my shirt in the shape of a silver hearth. “Fires from the Hearth of Hestia are healing.”</p><p>“You mean they are incapable of harm?”</p><p>I shrugged. “I’ve never tried to harm someone with it, not <em> really </em>. I just…don’t have the heart. I know I need to fight sometimes and all, but the fire from the Hearth is built for healing, not harm.”</p><p>“It was…not unpleasant. I thank you for your concern over my health. Did…did you see anything, when your fire connected?”</p><p>“See…what, for example?”</p><p>“I have a deep well of memories stored within me. Those who attempt any kind of psychic link are ejected and damaged with an irreparable scar on their mind and sometimes their body. I don’t particularly…my memories do not evoke many…many <em> feelings </em>. When your fire absorbed into my being, I recalled an impromptu memory as though it were fresh. I speculated that it was a caveat to your fire.”</p><p>“My fire doesn’t evoke emotions necessarily. <em> I </em> can access memories and the emotions that accompany them, but that wasn’t my intention. All my fire does is heal, and I didn’t direct it to do anything more than that. Although…your rejection of it <em> did </em> backfire some images into my mind, but it was just flashes. I didn’t see anything specific. I suspected that it was simply a natural reaction because of your unique situation.”</p><p>Famine looked into the arena beyond the tunnel. “I wonder how far your fire truly went.”</p><p>I examined her pensive reaction. She seemed lost in thought.</p><p>“Why did you run back and save us?” she asked.</p><p>“Hm?”</p><p>“You ran back and saved us despite the risk to your person, the Nikai and their terror screams, and when you don’t know us. As far as you’re concerned, we’re <em> not </em> your friends. We’re capturing gods.”</p><p>“I just…know. I can read people so long as they have a soul to read. Even Forge has a person, a consciousness, to read. With sentience comes a heart. I can just feel what kind of person you are, and I knew that you were worth saving.”</p><p>It was her turn to examine me. She gave a light chuckle. “It wasn’t necessary, but thanks. I don’t say ‘thank you’ to a lot of people, so take the compliment while you can.”</p><p>I smiled and nodded to her. “I’ll do that. But what exactly was your plan there?”</p><p>She crossed her arms, leaning back against the tunnel wall. “Nike’s intention is for victory among opposites. We knew that she would intend to turn us against each other, Forge and I. We’ve never been enemies, but it’s easy to see why we would hate each other, and that’s why Boss sent us here. You would prove a worthy distraction, and we were curious to see if she would truly harm us before she witnessed our struggle for victory.”</p><p>“So we were just tools to you?” For some reason, that thought made me smile. “I guess that’s what we should’ve expected.”</p><p>Famine raised an eyebrow. She looked amused. “Why do you smile?”</p><p>“Because…you’re really misleading, you know that? Your entire team is so dangerous, but you’re also so innocent. I can’t make out what I should be interpreting you as. It’s really complicated. But…I wanna get to know you better.”</p><p>Famine turned her head, keeping me in the corner of her vision. Her smile was almost coy, eyes half-lid. “You wanna <em> save </em> us.” She closed her eyes, lowering her head, and the half of her face I could see upturned in a more sinister smirk that sent a chill through my body and twisted my stomach into a knot. “Ha!” Her laugh was shrill and abrupt. She slipped her hand over her mouth. When she removed it, she was looking rather tamed again, though her aura had changed dramatically. “I know your kind now. You’re the ones with too much hope for <em> our </em> kind. Unfortunately, I won’t be swayed by your words or your powers. That’s not how this works.”</p><p>I frowned as she glanced out into the arena. “Showtime!” she called to the others.</p><p>Leo was just explaining to Frank how to avoid getting decapitated by his own Archimedes sphere when the sound of trumpets echoed through the stadium. Nike’s chariot appeared on the field, the Nikai arrayed in front of her and circling around her defensively with their spears and laurels raised.</p><p>“Looks like she knows she’s putting herself at risk here,” Forge smirked. “Let’s put on a show.”</p><p>“Begin!” the goddess bellowed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Victory and Death</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Second part of a double update as an apology for taking so long. And also because the last chapter was getting really long and it had a lot of...meh information so I thought why not?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Forge raised his forging hammer and slammed it down on the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He, Percy, Leo, and Kaze sprinted through the archway. A combination of the Mist and Forge’s magic ripped through the area, turning the entire area into a large maze of brick walls and trenches.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This way!” Famine ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel and Famine ran side-by-side, with each step from Famine cracking the pavement as thick plants were released from her shoes and digging into the ground. The maze was slowly being overtaken by a thick layer of greenery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, die, Graecus scum!” Frank yelled, shooting a poorly-aimed arrow over towards Leo’s head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More vicious!” Nike yelled. “Kill like you mean it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Duck if you want to live,” Famine said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cannons!” Forge shouted across the field.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I heard the sound of metal clanking as I ducked down beside Hazel and Frank. A barrage of metal cannons fired on our location; both the explosion from the cannons and the impact from the cannonballs shook the earth. Famine’s plants reached out at just the right moments and at just the right angles to defend us, but she was letting the shrapnel come frighteningly close (oh yeah, and her plants were literally hard enough and sharp enough at times to actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>destroy</span>
  </em>
  <span> the </span>
  <em>
    <span>solid metal</span>
  </em>
  <span> cannonballs coming it at high speed).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Attack!” Famine shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her vines shot through the arena - solid metal and stone being ripped apart by large vines growing free and shooting out as jagged spikes. Famine was missing the others in her assault, but I knew she found pleasure in striking terror into them as she came mighty close to impaling them. Who she </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> genuinely aim for was Forge, who was struck multiple times with nary a wince.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Die, Romans!” Percy yelled, before lobbing a grenade over the wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>BOOM! The smell of buttery popcorn filled the air as it rained down around us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We started moving, Hazel shifting the maze to our needs. “Oh, no!” Hazel wailed. “Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank shot another arrow before ducking through a maze of walls that shifted and turned on their own. I could still see the sky above, but I was sensing claustrophobia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere behind us, Nike shouted, “Try harder! That popcorn was not fatal!” From the rumble of her chariot wheels, I guessed she was circling the perimeter of the field - Victory taking a victory lap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Small shurikens rained down upon the area, accompanied by a storm of wind that covered the area and started clouding our vision.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank chucked a grenade high, careful to make sure that he aimed so that the blast only </span>
  <em>
    <span>looked</span>
  </em>
  <span> impressive. Percy and Leo dove into a trench as the green starburst of Greek fire singed their hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better,” Nike called out, “but where is your aim? Don’t you </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> this circlet of leaves?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine’s plants grew dozens of spores that exploded and spread a powdery mist across the field. It didn’t have any real effect, but it certainly obscured our vision and </span>
  <em>
    <span>appeared</span>
  </em>
  <span> deadly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Isolating the targets,” Hazel whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced down the next path which magically was clearing specifically so that we could see down the line. About thirty yards away, one of the Nikai was standing with her back to us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Frank, grizzly bear,” I whispered. “Hazel, get him atop one of the walls. Crush her before she can attack. She’s armored against weapons, but you can crush her with enough weight and a preemptive. Hazel, start revealing more of the Nikai. We need to take out as many as possible before Nike can order them to retaliate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded, opening another path that I assumed led to another Nikai. “Kaze is standing by with half a dozen he’s ready to attack. Percy and Leo are ready with another. Forge has a baker’s dozen surrounded, and Famine has locked onto the rest. You, me, and Frank each take one. Get ready for the signal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded, making sure I was armed with all of Leo and Kaze’s gifts. I made my way quickly down the path Hazel made for me, avoiding the dangers that started popping up. There was a lot of clanging and tearing sounds as Forge and Famine attacked each other and the others regularly threw grenades. I admit that I was concerned, being on my own. I had to jump over some of Famine’s attacking plants and would have been impaled by some spikes from Forge if I weren’t invincible. I had a feeling he did that on purpose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I finally reached my Nikai, arming myself and waiting for Hazel’s signal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A small pop in the Mist directed at each of us, and I knew that was it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I chucked one of my grenades, which exploded against the Nikai and got her attention. Circling around her, choosing to go left simply because that felt more comfortable, I waited for her to notice me and start marching in my direction, raising her barbed wire laurel wreath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I ducked as the metal circlet spun over my head, hitting the wall behind me, punching a hole straight through the bricks, then arching backwards through the air like a boomerang. I dived for the Nikai as she raised her hand to catch it, flicking open one of the retractable swords that Kaze had given me that emerged into a three-foot blade in the sleek shape of a throwing knife. It was thinner than a regular sword, and sharpened to the point that it easily sliced through the Nikai. The wreath hit me in the shoulder, but beyond knocking my balance and nearly causing me to fall upon my Nikai victim, I just rolled my arm and popped it back into place. I grabbed the wreath weapon, deciding that it could be useful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Foul!” the victory goddess cried. The walls shifted and I could see the location of all the others - as well as Nike barreling towards the nearest group in her chariot - Leo and Percy. “You don’t attack the Nikai unless you wish to die!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A trench appeared in the goddess’s path, causing her horses to balk. Mental rods at least a foot thick shot out from the walls and aimed straight for the chariot, causing Nike and her steeds to be thrown into confusion. Percy and Leo ran for cover, while I noticed maybe fifty feet away, Frank the grizzly bear jumped from the top of a wall and flattened another Nikai. Kaze’s weapons exploded all across the battlefield, and I could see the dust and fog parting as he zipped across the area and took out all of his targets at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Metal clanged, the Nikai cried out in rage. I saw one impaled by one of the metal spikes from Forge and another completely engulfed by vines from the inside out. Based on the sounds I was hearing and the rolling waves of rage that were coming off of Nike, growing increasingly stronger by the second, her forces were being diminished very quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that all you’ve got?!” Forge. “Ha! I hope you’re holding back, because you’re falling behind!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eat acid, metal-man!” Famine shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I took cover as the two of them started clashing in heavy battle. I started dashing through the area, trusting that Hazel - if not Forge - was keeping the battlefield in our favor. I dived to another path and took cover behind a wall, ending up right beside Leo and Percy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emily!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” I greeted over the explosions. “Having fun yet?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve taken out double the Nikai that you have!” Forge shouted across the arena. “Try and keep up, weakling.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Taking credit for my kills, are you? Is that the only way you get ahead in life - claiming another’s success for your own?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re really going at it,” Percy sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess they </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> say they’d put on a show,” Leo shrugged, still trying to catch his breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Nike screamed in outrage. “No, no, no! Your lives are forfeit! Nikai, attack!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More metal women were released, but luckily Hazel was on it. She was causing the terrain to shift around us - opening new trenches, changing the slope of the land, throwing up new walls and columns. With luck, she would make it harder for the Nikai to find us. Traveling just twenty feet might take them several minutes. Even if Forge wasn’t entirely looking to keep us safe, the danger in his maze was aimed more at the Nikai than us, and though his intentions were destructive, I knew that underneath, his mind was very focused, and he wasn’t going to let us actually come to harm. I could hear the screeching of Nikai attacking and being attacked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could sense Leo’s hatred of the disorientation. It reminded him of his helplessness in the House of Hades - the way Clytius had smothered him in darkness, snuffing out his fire, possessing his voice. It reminded him of Khione, plucking him off the deck of the Argo II with a gust of wind and shooting him halfway across the Mediterranean. It was bad enough being scrawny and weak; If Leo couldn’t control his own senses, his own voice, his own body…that didn’t leave him much to rely on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s gonna be </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” I insisted. “We rely on you for this </span>
  <em>
    <span>whole</span>
  </em>
  <span> quest, you got that? Those weren’t your tests, you weren’t equipped to handle those situations. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This</span>
  </em>
  <span> is where we need you, Leo. More than ever, we need your smarts and ingenuity, okay? And once we’re done, you’re gonna get there again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo met my eyes, and I smiled at him warmly. I could see his muscles relax as his mind started working, no longer focusing on the past and instead focusing on the present.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Percy announced. “If we don’t make it out of this-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t say that,” I interrupted. “We’re going to make it. Practically winning already.” An explosion shook the area and we all pressed close to the wall, shielding our faces from any falling dust and rubble. “Tearing it up,” I smiled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But if we don’t, I just want you to know, Leo - I feel bad about Calypso. I failed her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo’s entire thought process stopped and he stared at Percy, dumbfounded. “You know about me and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Argo II is a small ship.” Percy grimaced. “Word got around. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not</span>
  </em>
  <span> from Emily! She takes that kinda stuff seriously. You know, doctor-patient confidentiality - or whatever you call her emotional psychology meetings. I just…well, when I was in Tartarus, I was reminded that I hadn’t followed through on my promise to Calypso. I asked the gods to free her and then…I just assumed they </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span>. With me getting amnesia and getting sent to Camp Jupiter and all, I didn’t think about Calypso much after that. I’m not making excuses. I should have made sure the gods kept their promise. Anyway, I’m glad you found her. You promised to find a way back to her, and I just wanted to say if we </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> survive all this, I’ll do anything I can to help you. That’s a promise I </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> keep.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo was speechless. Here we were, hiding behind a wall in the middle of a magical war zone, with grenades and grizzly bears, an all-out war between two partly immortals, and a bunch of bronze Nikeetes to worry about, and Percy pulls </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> on him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Man, what is your </span>
  <em>
    <span>problem?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Leo grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy blinked. “So…I guess we’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> cool?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of </span>
  <em>
    <span>course</span>
  </em>
  <span> we’re not cool! You’re as bad as Jason! I’m trying to resent you for being all perfect and hero-y and whatnot. Then you go and act like a standup guy. How am I supposed to hate you if you apologize and promise to help and stuff?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A smile tugged at the corner of Percy’s mouth. “Sorry about that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ground rumbled as another grenade exploded, sending spirals of whipped cream into the sky. Kaze started shouting something, and though I couldn’t see him, I could sense a mixture of excitement and determination.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s Hazel’s signal,” I said. “The Nikai are thinning out. We’re almost done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy peaked around the corner of the wall. Leo hadn’t realized how much he’d resented Percy. The dude had always intimidated him, and knowing Calypso had had a crush on Percy made the feeling ten times worse. But now the knot of anger in his gut started to unravel. Leo just couldn’t dislike the guy. Percy seemed sincere about being sorry and wanting to help, and even Leo couldn’t deny it. Besides, he finally had confirmation that Percy Jackson was out of the picture with Calypso. The air was cleared. All Leo had to do was to find his way back to Ogygia. And he </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span>, assuming he survived the next ten days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just a few Nikettes left,” Percy said. “I wonder-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere close by, Hazel cried out in pain. Instantly, Leo was on his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude, wait!” Percy called, but Leo plunged through the maze, his heart pounding. Percy and I sprinted after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The walls fell away on either side. We found ourselves in an open stretch of field. Frank stood at the far end of the stadium, shooting flaming arrows at Nike’s chariot as the goddess bellowed insults and tried to find a path to him across the shifting network of trenches. Kaze was dashing around with his speed, jumping over obstacles as he threw grenades and shurikens at the goddess and then running before she could retaliate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel was closer - maybe sixty feet away. One of the final Nikai had obviously sneaked up on her. Hazel was limping away from her attacker, her jeans ripped, her left leg bleeding. She parried the metal lady’s spear with her huge cavalry sword, but she was about to be overpowered. All around her, the Mist flickered like a dying strobe light. She was losing control of the magic maze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll help her,” Percy said. “You guys stick to the plan. Forge and Famine are still offering a bit of cover. We don’t have the trenches, but we still have Forge’s maze and Famine’s plants are shifting enough to allow plenty of confusion. Get Nike’s chariot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But the plan was to eliminate all of the Nikettes first!” Leo protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So change the plan and </span>
  <em>
    <span>then</span>
  </em>
  <span> stick to it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That doesn’t even make sense, but go! Help her!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy rushed to Hazel’s defense. Leo and I darted towards Nike.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s make her angry,” I said. “Hey! We want participation awards!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gah!” The goddess pulled the reins and turned her chariot in our direction. “I will destroy you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good!” Leo shouted. “Losing is way better than winning!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>WHAT?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike threw her mighty spear, but a vine reached out and shook the chariot violently and her aim was off. Her weapon skittered into the grass and was consumed by the greenery. Sadly, a new one appeared in her hands. She urged her horses to a full gallop. The trenches disappeared, leaving an open field, perfect for running down small demigods. Though Famine had just helped us, I couldn’t tell where she was, and Forge was distracted creating havoc against a few dozen Nikai and didn’t seem to notice the situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Frank yelled from across the stadium. “I want a participation award too! Everybody wins!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shot a well-aimed arrow that landed in the back of Nike’s chariot and began to burn. Nike ignored it. Her eyes were fixed on us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy…?” Leo’s voice sounded like a hamster’s squeak. From his tool belt, he fished out an Archimedes sphere and set the concentric circles to arm the device.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy was still sparring with the  metal lady. No time to wait. Leo threw the sphere in the chariot’s path. It hit the ground and burrowed in, but we needed Percy to spring the trap. If Nike sensed any threat, she apparently didn’t think much of it. She kept charging in our direction. I moved Leo behind me, but I wasn’t sure if that was going to help save him when facing a charging chariot. I might need to push him out of the way at the last moment. If we ran now, even just one of us, Nike might change her trajectory and miss the grenade.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy!” I shouted. The chariot was twenty feet from the grenade. Fifteen feet. “Percy, Operation Water Balloon!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, Percy was a little busy getting smacked around. The Nikai thumped him backwards with the butt of her spear. She threw her wreath with such force it knocked Percy sword from his grip. Percy stumbled. The metallic lady moved in for the kill.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo howled. He knew the distance was too far. He knew that if he didn’t jump out of the way now, Nike would run us over. But that didn’t matter. His friends were about to be skewered. He thrust out his hand and shot a white-hot bolt of fire straight at the Nikai. It literally melted her face. The Nikai staggered, her spear still raised. Before she could regain her balance, Hazel thrust out her spatha and impaled the metal lady through the chest. The Nikai crashed into the grass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy!” Kaze’s accent was easily identifiable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy’s sword suddenly bounced back up in the opposite direction it had come from like it was struck with an invisible force. Percy used his stumble to his advantage and fell in the right direction. He rolled across the grass and to his feet, snatching his sword and slicing another Nikai through the torso.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Left!” Kaze appeared, zooming past Percy and slicing down a Nikai that had been behind him. “Go!” he shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were being surrounded by the remaining Nikai. I didn’t see Forge </span>
  <em>
    <span>or</span>
  </em>
  <span> Famine, meaning they had probably left their Nikai to Kaze and the others. Kaze dashed around and kept them back, moving to create a defensive ring around Hazel and Percy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I caught Leo as he stumbled from the energy drained during his blast of fire, holding up his weight before he lost his footing. Percy turned towards the victory goddess’s chariot. Just as those huge white horses were about to turn us into roadkill, the carriage passed over Leo’s sunken grenade, which exploded in a high-pressure geyser. Water blasted upwards, flipping the chariot - horses, carriage, goddess, and all. I dived with Leo out of the way, covering him from the debris that the momentum of Nike’s chariot left behind. Back in Houston, Leo used to live with his mom in an apartment right off the Gulf Freeway. He heard car crashes at least once a week, but this sound was worse - Celestial bronze crumpling, wood splintering, stallions screaming, and a goddess wailing in two distinct voices, both of them very surprised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The remaining Nikai all turned towards Nike in her distress, and Kaze took the opportunity to zip around and decapitate them all with his weapon in one slice. Hazel collapsed; Percy caught her. Frank ran towards us from across the field.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I looked around the emptied field, but Famine and Forge had disappeared. We were on our own as the goddess Nike disentangled herself from the wreckage and rose to face us. Her braided hairdo now resembled a stepped-on cow pie; a laurel wreath was stuck around her left ankle. Her horses got to their hooves and galloped away in a panic, dragging the soaked, half-burning wreckage of the chariot behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had read Forge and Famine, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> they would hold up their end of the deal. Though the odds said that they would just leave us to Nike’s wrath, I had a feeling in my gut that said otherwise. I nodded to Leo to go forward with the plan as we’d discussed it. He didn’t seem convinced, but he took a deep breath and faced Nike with a determined gaze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>YOU!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Nike glared at Leo, her eyes hotter and brighter than her metal wings. “You </span>
  <em>
    <span>dare?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo didn’t feel very courageous, but I pushed confidence into him, calming the nerves in his stomach, and he smiled. “I know, right? I’m awesome! Do I win a leaf hat now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will die!” The goddess raised her spear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold that thought!” Leo dug around in his tool belt. “You haven’t seen my best trick yet. I have a weapon guaranteed to win </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> contest!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike hesitated. I could feel her curiosity taking over. Her mind was so distracted at the moment, that once she thought about the weapon, she couldn’t think about anything else. “What weapon? What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My ultimate zap-o-matic!” He pulled out a second Archimedes sphere - the one he’d spent a whole thirty seconds modifying before we’d entered the stadium. “How many laurel wreaths have you got? Because I’m gonna win them all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He fiddled with the dials, hoping he’d done his calculations right. Leo had gotten better at making spheres, but they still weren’t completely reliable. More like twenty percent reliable. It would’ve been nice to have Calypso’s help weaving the Celestial bronze filaments. She was an </span>
  <em>
    <span>ace</span>
  </em>
  <span> at weaving. Or Annabeth: she was no slouch. But Leo had done his best, rewiring the sphere to carry out two completely different functions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Behold!” Leo clicked the final dial. The sphere opened. One side elongated into a gun handle; the other side unfolded into a miniature radar dish made of Celestial bronze mirrors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike frowned. “What is that supposed to be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I waved my hands in Leo’s direction in a gameshow-like way. “An Archimedes death ray!” I crossed my arms proudly. “Leo is the first one to have </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> perfected it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now give me all the prizes, lady,” Leo agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Those things don’t work!” Nike yelled. “They proved it on television! Besides, I’m an immortal goddess. You can’t destroy me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, but those were mortals,” I pointed out. “We know the secrets to destroying gods. We destroyed Khione, the ice goddess. Or hadn’t you heard?” I started pushing skepticism into Nike - not doubt, not belief. She needed to be curious, not dissuaded. If she actually believed it worked, she’d keep her distance, same if she absolutely </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> believe it worked. “Just look at it! It’s obviously deserving of a wreath.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Watch closely,” Leo said. “Are you watching?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike could’ve zapped him into a grease spot or speared him like a cheese wedge, but her curiosity got the best of her. Leo gave me an appreciative glance as I pushed Nike’s natural curiosity to the max. She stared straight into the dish as Leo flipped the switch. We knew to look away. Even so, the blazing beam of light left us seeing spots.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gah!” The goddess staggered. She dropped her spear and clutched her eyes. “I’m blind! I’m blind!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo hit another button on his death ray. It collapsed back into a sphere and began to hum. I counted silently to three, then Leo tossed the sphere at the goddess’s feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>FOOM! Metal filaments shot upward, wrapping Nike in a bronze net. She wailed, falling sideways as the net constricted, forcing her two forms - Greek and Roman - into a quivering, out-of-focus whole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trickery!” Her doubled voices buzzed like muffled alarm clocks. “Your death ray did not even kill me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t need to kill you,” Leo said. “I vanquished you just fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will simply change form! I will rip apart your silly net! I will destroy you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that ain’t gonna work.” A large flower emerged from the ground, opening up to reveal Famine and Forge. Forge’s flames swept out from the petals and closed in on Leo’s net, fortifying it further and pulling the goddess tighter. He hopped free of the flower while Famine caused it to disappear back into the grass. “This is high-quality Celestial bronze netting combined with the fires of Hephaestus’s forge itself. You just got captured by a son of Hephaestus. He’s kind of an expert on catching goddesses in nets.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. Nooooo!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We left her thrashing and cursing with Forge and Famine and went to check on our friends. Percy looked all right, just sore and bruised. Frank propped up Hazel and fed her ambrosia. The cut on her leg had stopped bleeding, though her jeans were pretty much ruined.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m okay,” she said. “Just too much magic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were awesome, Levesque.” Leo did his best Hazel imitation: “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze popped a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth. “Very deadly,” he agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled wanly. Together, we walked over to Nike, who was still writhing and flapping her wings in the net, like a golden chicken.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…what do we do with her?” Percy asked. “Do we wanna let </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> take her?” He eyed Famine and Forge, who were looking bored.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can take her aboard the Argo II,” Leo said. “We’ve already got a prison in the horse stalls. Might as well make use of them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel’s eyes widened. “You’re going to keep the goddess of victory in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>stable?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why not? Once we sort things out between Greeks and Romans, the gods should go back to their normal selves. Then we can free her and she can…you know…grant us victory.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Grant </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> victory?” the goddess cried. “Never! You will suffer for this outrage! Your blood shall be spilled! One of you here - one of you of the prophecy - is fated to die battling Gaea!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo’s entire body tensed, and I could feel the tension in the air rise. “How do you know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can foresee victory!” Nike yelled. “You will have no success without death! Release me and fight each other! It is better you die here than face what is to come!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel struck the point of her spatha under Nike’s chin. “Explain.” Her voice was harder than I’d ever heard. “Which of us will die? How do we stop it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, child of Pluto! Your magic helped you cheat in his contest, but you cannot cheat destiny. One of you will die. One of you </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> die!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Hazel insisted. “There’s another way. There is </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> another path.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hecate taught you this?” Nike laughed. “You would hope for the physician’s cure, perhaps? But that is impossible. Too much stands in your way: the poison of Pylos, the chained god’s heartbeat in Sparta, the curse of Delos! No, you cannot cheat death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank knelt. He gathered up the net under Nike’s chin and raised her face to his. “What are you talking about? How do we find this cure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will not help you,” Nike growled. “I will curse you with my power, net or no!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She began to mutter in Ancient Greek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank looked up, scowling. “Can she really cast magic through this net?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Step aside,” Forge ordered. Frank dropped Nike as Forge took his place. He then reared back and kicked the goddess in the gut at full force. Nike went rolling across the field, but Forge pulled his hand into a fist and the next glowed with his magic flames and pulled her back to him, holding her close to his face just like Frank had done. “I’m dating a woman who slaughters monsters and deities for a living. Don’t think I’m afraid of hitting a goddess. Your power is useless while within my flames. Even if it weren’t, you know the power of my people. Fate does not bind us. Your blessing isn’t necessary for our victory. This earth existed before you, and it can go on without you. So if you want to grant victory to the gods again, I’d suggest you choose your words wisely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> shouldn’t take her?” Famine asked. “I have a feeling she’d get along swimmingly with some of our crew.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your patron knows the truth,” Nike muttered, her voice as cruel as Hazel’s had been a moment ago when threatening Nike. “The deities that you </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> place your trust in, they know the truth that is to come. If you don’t believe me, ask </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Someone will die from each and every one of your teams. From the Seven, from the Five, from the Thirteen. There is no avoiding death, no matter the power of your people. The Usurper will betray, as the Usurper before them did, and the one before him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Forge’s expression darkened, and I could feel tension from both him and Famine. Forge tapped the net and his flames constricted the net around her as he dropped her back onto the grass. “Enjoy the horse stables.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Forge,” Famine urged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned away from the goddess and hefted his forging hammer onto his shoulder. “We don’t need her as much as Juno. Let them take the annoying victory goddess. Boss said we don’t need her imprisoned with us, we just need her imprisoned. She’s imprisoned.” He walked over to Famine, but he paused mid-stride. “Just one thing.” He glanced at Percy. “Give us back Pain. You take the goddess, we take back Pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy looked confused as to why Forge was speaking to </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He glanced around at the others to try and gauge their opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We got what we needed from her,” I announced. “No harm in letting her go. We don’t need her on the ship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Besides, I’d rather have only one prisoner to deal with,” Leo admitted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then…you’ll get Pain back,” Percy concluded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine sighed, and I felt her composure return. “Well, guess you’re getting the dingy stables, little Miss Victory. We’d planned a nice golden prison for you, but I feel this is more appropriate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You blasphemers. You would betray the rule of the heavens-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We betray no more than the gods do,” Famine snapped. “Betrayal has always existed, though you deities have never given it a name. Now it will have one, and it will </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> be on your side.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Forge took a few steps back to join Famine as the two of them were consumed within another large flower. Famine glanced at me, and I could swear she winked at me before the flower petals closed around her and Forge. They were consumed as the plant was sucked back into the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can’t say I entirely understood all of that,” Hazel admitted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told no lies,” Nike said. “Many will die before you are ever granted victory - not you, nor them. I do not need to be free to inflict such a curse upon you. Ask your Primordials. Their answer will likely confirm my statement. One of you here will die, there is no avoiding it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about this physician’s cure?” I wondered, less asking Nike and more simply musing about what she’d said. I held up fingers as I spoke. “The poison of Pylos, the chained god’s heartbeat in Sparta, and the Curse of Delos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will learn nothing more from me. Death is inevitable, that is all you need know.” She began muttering in more Ancient Greek.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank scowled and took off one of his shoes, peeled off his sock, and stuffed it in the goddess’s mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dude,” Percy said, “that’s disgusting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better than her muttering some curses,” I said. “Not that I don’t trust Forge-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Leo asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-but I’d rather </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> have her affecting our chances of success when we’re on such a dangerous and crucial part of our quest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mpppphhh,” Nike complained. “Mppppphhh!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leo,” Frank said grimly, “you got duct tape?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never leave home without it.” He fished a roll from his tool belt, and in no time Frank had wrapped it around Nike’s head, securing the gag in her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’s not a laurel wreath, but it’s a new kind of victory circle: the gag of duct tape.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Zhang,” Leo said. “You got style.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike thrashed around and grunted until Percy nudged her with his toe. “Hey, shut up. You behave or we’ll get Arion back here and let him nibble your wings. He loves gold.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nike shrieked once, then became still and quiet. I kinda felt bad for her, actually, but considering how dangerous she had been during our short encounter, I tried to keep my emotions in control. Even if Nike wouldn’t grant </span>
  <em>
    <span>us</span>
  </em>
  <span> victory, maybe once the gods were stable she’d side with </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> at least. Besides, gods had been captured before, and being captured or debilitated didn’t negate the things they represented. The gods were just physical manifestations of worldly concepts and such. According to Rei, they were originally born from the Primordials, yes, but they are sustained by the ideas and concepts being so widespread and the concepts actually affecting real lives - basically, so long as the concept exists, the god exists, not the other way around. Death being tamed was obviously a bad thing because he couldn’t do his job, but that was an extreme case.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze knelt down in front of the goddess and studied her, muttering some things in Japanese.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…” Hazel sounded a little nervous. “We have one tied-up goddess. Now what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank folded his arms. “We go looking for this physician’s cure…whatever that is. Because personally, I like cheating death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo grinned. “Poison in Pylos? A chained god’s heartbeat in Sparta? A curse in Delos? Oh, yeah. This is gonna be fun!”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Iota</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nudged Mirage, who looked about to nod off. “Hey, we’re almost done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They waved their hand at me, their eyes still closed. “I’m awake,” they promised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shook my head. I think even coming here with Sandy would’ve been more productive. Perhaps I should’ve asked Sandy to Astral-Project us here rather than hiding in Mirage’s Mist. They didn’t seem very interested in hearing the war tactics.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I did enjoy the fact that the rec room in the Big House, gathering around a Ping-Pong table with all the senior camp leaders, was Camp Half-Blood’s idea of an official meeting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charon the centaur was sitting in a magic wheelchair that hid his equine posterior so that he looked like a regular human. His curly brown hair and beard had more gray streaks than a few months ago. Deep lines etched his face. “Now let’s review our defenses. Where do we stand?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clarisse from the Ares cabin sat forward. She was the only one in full armor, which was typical. Clarisse probably slept in her combat gear. As she spoke, she gestured with her dagger, which made the other counselors lean away from her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Our defensive line is mostly solid,” she said. “The campers are as ready to fight as they’ll ever be. We control the beach. Our triremes are unchallenged on Long Island Sound, but those stupid giant eagles dominate our airspace. Inland, in all three directions, the barbarians have us completely cut off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re Romans,” Rachel Dare, the oracle of Delphi, said, doodling with a marker on the knee of her jeans. “Not barbarians.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Romans hate the sea and they don’t have a navy,” a girl who heavily resembled Rei but with a glowing green aura said. “In fact, I think I sank it recently. Or maybe it was someone else. Either way, they had like </span>
  <em>
    <span>one</span>
  </em>
  <span> boat, and it’s gone now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clarisse pointed her dagger at Rachel. “Well what about their allies, huh? Did you see that tribe of two-headed men that arrived yesterday? Or the glowing red dog-headed guys with those big poleaxes? They look pretty barbaric to me. It would’ve been nice if you’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>foreseen</span>
  </em>
  <span> any of that, if your Oracle power didn’t break down when we needed it most!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rachel’s face turned as red as her hair. “That’s hardly my fault. Something is wrong with Apollo’s gifts of prophecy. If I knew how to fix it-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s right.” Will Solace, head counselor for the Apollo cabin, put his hand gently on Clarisse’s wrist. Not many campers could’ve done that without getting stabbed, but Will had a way of defusing people’s anger. He got her to lower her dagger. “Everyone in our cabin has been affected. It’s not just Rachel.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Will’s shaggy blond hair and pale blue eyes were reminiscent of Jason Grace, but the similarities ended there. Jason was a fighter. You could tell from the intensity of his stare, his constant alertness, the coiled-up energy in his frame. Will Solace was more like a lanky cat stretched out in the sunshine. His movements were relaxed and non-threatening,  his gaze soft and far away. In his faded </span>
  <b>SURF BARBADOS</b>
  <span> T-shirt, his cutoff shorts and flip-flops, he looked about as aggressive as a demigod could get, but he was definitely brave under fire. During the Battle of Manhattan, he’d been the camp’s best combat medic, risking his life to save wounded campers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We don’t know what’s going on at Delphi,” Will continued. “My dad hasn’t answered any prayers, or appeared in any dreams…I mean, </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> the gods have been silent, but this isn’t like Apollo. Something’s wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Across the table, Jake Mason grunted. “Probably this Roman dirt-wipe who’s leading the attack - Octavian what’s-his-name. If I was Apollo and my descendant was acting that way, I’d go into hiding out of shame.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I agree. I wish I was a better archer…I wouldn’t mind shooting my Roman relative off his high horse. Actually, I wish I could use </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> of my father’s gifts to stop this war.” He looked down at his own hands with distaste. “Unfortunately, I’m just a healer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, healers are important, Will,” the Rei clone said. “Don’t sell yourself short. Offense is worthless if your fighters get disabled after a single encounter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your talents are essential,” Chiron agreed. “I fear we’ll need them soon enough. As for seeing the future…what about the harpy Ella? Has she offered any advice from the Sibylline Books?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rachel shook her head. “The poor thing is scared out of her wits. Harpies hate being imprisoned. Ever since the Romans surrounded us…well, she feels trapped. She knows Octavian means to capture her. It’s all Tyson and I can do to keep her from flying away.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which would be suicide.” Butch Walker, son of Iris, crossed his burly arms. “With those Roman eagles in the air, flying isn’t safe. I’ve already lost two pegasi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least Tyson brought some of his Cyclops friends to help out,” Rachel said. “That’s a little good news.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over by the refreshment table, Connor Stoll laughed. He had a fistful of Ritz crackers in one hand and a can of Easy Cheese in the other. “A dozen full-grown Cyclopes? That’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> of good news! Plus, Lou Ellen and the Hecate kids have been putting up magic barriers, and the whole Hermes cabin has been lining the hills with traps and snares and all kinds of nice surprises for the Romans!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jake Mason frowned. “Most of which you stole from Bunker Nine and the Hephaestus cabin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clarisse grumbled in agreement. “They even stole the land mines from around the Ares cabin. How do you steal </span>
  <em>
    <span>live</span>
  </em>
  <span> land mines?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They can sense and disarm traps very easily,” the Rei Curse explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>commandeered</span>
  </em>
  <span> them for the war effort.” Connor sprayed a glob of Easy Cheese into his mouth. “Besides, you guys have plenty of toys. You can share!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Chiron turned to his left, where the satyr Grover Underwood sat in silence, fingering his reed pipes. “Grover? What news from the nature spirits?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grover heaved a sigh. “Even on a good day, it’s hard to organize nymphs and dryads. With Gaea stirring, they’re almost as disoriented as the gods. Katie and Miranda from the Demeter cabin are out there right now, trying to help, but if the Earth Mother wakes…” He looked around the table nervously. “Well, I can’t promise the woods will be safe. Or the hills. Or the strawberry fields. Or-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great.” Jake Mason elbowed Clovis from the Hypnos Cabin, who was starting to nod off. “So what do we do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Attack.” Clarisse pounded the Ping-Pong table, which made everyone flinch. “The Romans are getting more reinforcements by the day. We know they plan to invade on August first. Why should we let </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> set the timetable? I can only guess they’re waiting to gather more forces. They already outnumber us. We should attack now, before they get any stronger, take the fight to them!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Malcolm, the acting head counselor for Athena, coughed into his fist. “Clarisse, I get your point. But have you studied Roman engineering? Their </span>
  <em>
    <span>temporary</span>
  </em>
  <span> camp is better defended than Camp Half-Blood. Attack them at their base, and we’d be massacred.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So we just </span>
  <em>
    <span>wait?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Clarisse demanded. “Let them get all their forces prepared while Gaea gets closer to waking? I have Coach Hedge’s pregnant wife under my protection. I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to let anything happen to her. I owe Hedge my life. Besides, I’ve been training the campers more than you have, Malcolm. Their morale is low. Everybody is scared. If we’re under siege another nine days-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should stick to Annabeth’s plan.” Connor Stoll looked about as serious as he ever did, despite the Easy Cheese around his mouth. “We have to hold out until she gets that magic Athena statue back here.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Clarisse rolled her eyes. “You mean if that </span>
  <em>
    <span>Roman praetor</span>
  </em>
  <span> gets the statue back here. I don’t understand what Annabeth was thinking, collaborating with the enemy. Even </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Roman manages to bring us the statue - which is impossible - we’re supposed to trust that will bring peace? The statue arrives, and suddenly the Romans lay down their weapons and start dancing around, throwing flowers?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rachel set down her marking pen. “Annabeth knows what she’s doing. We have to try for peace. Unless we can unite the Greeks and Romans, the gods won’t be healed. Unless the gods are healed, there’s no way we can kill the giants. And unless we kill the giants-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gaea wakes,” Connor said. “Game over. Look, Clarisse, Annabeth sent me a message from Tartarus. From </span>
  <em>
    <span>fricking Tartarus</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Anybody who can do that…hey, I listen to them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In any case, we’ve neglected an important person in this meeting,” Chiron announced. “Curse?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She bowed her head. “As for your concerns about the Romans, yes, they’re assembling a very dangerous force. However, the Curses have invaded their camp. There are many forces who are easily put into conflict - Octavian is bringing together an army that his regular troops aren’t fond of. They’re scared too. There are troops in the Roman army who are not loyal, that is obvious enough. I know of a few who are infiltrating with the purpose of protecting the Greek camp. They have chosen the Greeks as victors, should a resolution not be found, but I cannot say if that is a definite future. For now, that’s the current future I’m sensing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose that should make us feel a little better,” Will sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But there’s no telling how much bloodshed could happen in the process,” Rachel said. “Curse, do you have any more details on these troops?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Powerful demigods who are independent of both camps,” Curse said. “But they know the dangers of the camps dissolving into havoc and Gaea rising from the ashes. The Romans are in the wrong, so they joined the Roman forces and are preparing to first take down the monsters once they’ve all arrived and then the rogue Romans who support the campaign after that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So we have to rely on some people we don’t even know?” Clarisse hissed. “Yeah, great plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re very reliable. And very powerful. They’re following fate right now, or maybe they’re the ones </span>
  <em>
    <span>forging</span>
  </em>
  <span> the current fate I’m sensing. Either way, they </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> find the Roman camp is going too far. You will have powerful warriors on your side, at least. Just know that at least half of them they can take down armies single-handedly. I’ve fortified the camp with my Curses as best I can, and I am currently tracking Ane who is assisting the transport of the statue. They’ve made it to Portugal, and their next journey will be across the Atlantic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that’s great,” Connor muttered. “Hopefully, they’ve got a fast boat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Curse’s lips curled into a smile. “It’ll be a few days, of course, but we are as fortified as we can be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be honest with us,” Rachel said sternly. “Will this work?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Curse closed her eyes, leaning against the Ping-Pong table, lacing her fingers together. “There will be a great battle. But if the statue does arrive, the rift </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> be mended, and Camp Half-Blood will have protection. Annabeth and the rest of the Seven will be protected on their journey, and they will face the giants in Athens. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>may</span>
  </em>
  <span> even find a way back to assist the camps should the rift between the gods be healed in time for them to get some godly support. Whether these battles result in victory will depend on your actions now - keeping morale high and knowing that during the final battle, you will have to survive for…a day. Just tell them if they can survive one day of the final battle on August first, the battle will be won.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And will I be </span>
  <em>
    <span>lying</span>
  </em>
  <span> to them?” Clarisse asked skeptically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Curse smiled. “I can say what I want, unlike a normal Oracle, and so I can say no, you won’t be lying to them. Taking into account the many variables that I’m sensing, August first will be the end - one way or another. Just survive and defend your camp on August first with everything you have, meaning that no one can believe that the battle is hopeless. Will, I know you think that your healing is useless, but we’re going to need healers to keep everyone going for as long as possible. It’s going to be a big strain on your healing powers, but I know you and the other healers can do it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Will nodded. “I understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As for the offense, I trust that you’ll inform Boss of this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I blinked. I nudged Mirage, who opened their eyes to find that Curse was staring straight at us, hidden in the corner of the room. They glanced at Curse and winked at her, giving her a finger gun and clicking his tongue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who are you speaking to?” Clarisse looked ready to chuck her dagger at an enemy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Our demigod allies. The message has been sent. I will plan an attack with them. For now, that’s all you need to know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And here I thought you weren’t bound by your prophecies,” Rachel smirked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Curse returned the smile. “Sometimes I like to have my fun, and telling you the truth will sometimes incite a worse future than you want. I understand the need for prophecies and fixed futures, but only if I want to get something done. War strategies are never my thing. I usually like to let you armies tear yourselves apart on your own, but these are special circumstances. So I suppose I’ll follow the rules for now. Until Apollo’s Oracle is working again, I’m just going to have to become what I hate.” She sighed. “How the mighty fall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess we have to go now,” Mirage said. They brushed their hand through the white half of their hair. “I always love finding new people who can see past my Mist. Let’s go inform Boss.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I didn’t have a lot of room to protest, as Mirage teleported us back to the team.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Famine, Forge, you’re back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Were you successful?” Seven asked. “I don’t see a victory goddess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pain!” I called. I hurried over and wrapped her in a hug. “I hope you’re doing okay. Did they treat you right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gave me waffles,” Pain mused fondly. “You were right, Boss. Hezesto is really something. Certainly nicer than Lust.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one asked for your opinion,” Lust said, doing her makeup with a compact mirror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You left the victory goddess in their possession?” Boss asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, in exchange for Pain,” Forge said. “And because she was spouting some unamusing prophecies. Boss, she said that one of us will die. And that if I were to ask you, you would not tell us the truth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss didn’t seem fazed. “I am working to prevent it. All of you are </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> difficult to kill. The circumstances surrounding the incident are…uncertain. All I know is that it will happen during the confrontation with the gods and giants. The battle will be on the level of deities. We were born and trained to fight against the gods by the Wards. We have all been prepared in the Facilities since childhood - some of us from our birth itself. I want you all to rise to higher heights than you’ve ever had before, because now we have a date for what our entire lives have led up to: August first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of us stood straight and placed our arms across our chests in salute. “Yes, Boss.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In other news, I need Sandy and Mirage to go retrieve Death. The Reaper, I mean. There’s somewhere you need to go. We have another god to meet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To </span>
  <em>
    <span>capture?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Mirage asked, flicking a black fingernail in the air. Their voice was so silky smooth that it was hard to tell if they were eager or unamused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Depends. Ask the Reapers. Oh, and the son of Hades.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico di Angelo?” I recalled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss smiled. “No. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>other</span>
  </em>
  <span> one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandy tensed up. Normally Sandy was asleep on his feet, but now he was wide awake. “You want me to AP </span>
  <em>
    <span>him?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Boss-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll be </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Sandy. I just want you to extract his consciousness, </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> the </span>
  <em>
    <span>other</span>
  </em>
  <span> one. It should be easy. Right around…” She looked at the watch on the inside of her wrist. “…now. You’ll get to see Ane again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandy blinked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, Sandy’s got a little crush,” Lust said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No I don’t!” Sandy protested. “She’s just nice to talk to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And she could see you through your Astral Projection. You and Mirage have a thing for people who can see past your illusions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s like, four, dude,” Tilly said. “I mean, I’m not protesting, but Sandy’s like three times her age.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, </span>
  <em>
    <span>she’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> around 20 times </span>
  <em>
    <span>his</span>
  </em>
  <span> age,” Hatter pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“15 times his age,” Seven corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Around 18 times his age,” Quake corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> an immortal monster,” Pain shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think it’s sweet,” I volunteered. “She’s like a little sister, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandy blinked. He looked young and innocent with his wide eyes and freckled nose and cheeks, but when push came to shove, Sandy didn’t play around. Seeing him worrying over something so normal was actually really nice for a change.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust smirked. “Mmmmm…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tilly rolled her eyes. “Don’t argue with her, just ignore her. She’ll ship you with a rock if you look at it for more than two seconds.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lighten </span>
  <em>
    <span>up</span>
  </em>
  <span>, darling. I know what platonic love is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just because you know what it is doesn’t mean you use it very well,” Mirage pointed out. He sounded amused - as he usually was when it came to Lust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop gossiping and get going,” Boss ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes ma’am,” we all answered.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Dream and Death</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've had this chapter ready, it's just I've had a busy week and I've started writing one of my stories that I'm literally stuck in the future rather than writing for the present to, ya know, get to that future. Mostly because the present is stuck in a very depressing part and I need to build the mental constitution to get to it. It's my 'The Two of Them' story, and it's long. And I'm nearly to where I can break off into my part rather than following the books. I'm sorry, but the characters are so depressing at times. This is the wrong fandom to talk to this about, but I'm just saying.</p><p>I didn't realize what I'd named the former chapter of this story and then the current chapter of this story until I posted. The next one might be named 'So Much Death, Man'</p><p>For those of you in the HoO series, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>First Person: Sandman</p><p>“Hatter, War, I want you heading there in person to deal with the wolves. Sandy and Mirage, you should get going to find Death and Zytaveon and then move to find Hades. Lust, come with me for your mission.”</p><p>“Yes, Boss,” Lust said, though she seemed distracted as she always appeared (she was always listening, however, and she had better memory than nearly half the team).</p><p>I shifted nervously. I was fine with finding Death - he seemed nice. But the chosen wielder of Tartarus…the <em> prison </em> of Tartarus…I trusted Boss, I did, but this seemed far too dangerous. And being unconscious was probably a <em> bad </em> thing when you were working to keep such a destructive and dangerous force contained, right?</p><p>I laid down in the comfy tent that was set up for me. Boss had given us quarters on the edge of the Roman camp. I didn’t like the idea of settling down amongst both monsters and demigods, but Boss said it was safe, and I trusted her. Besides, if it <em> weren’t </em> safe, the others would protect me. Keeping my body safe while I was Projecting was a priority, and my team had never failed me before.</p><p>Once my head hit the pillows in the tent laden with soft blankets and cushions, I was easily able to knock myself out and enter my Astral-Projection - or AP - form.</p><p>I hovered up above my body and flew out of the tent, joining Mirage who was waiting for me.</p><p>“Hm, let’s hurry this along. I do so enjoy the company of our dear Death. His powers are quite interesting to toy with.”</p><p>I grabbed Mirage, pulling at the Mist he was made of and teleporting us through the dreamscape, seeking out the Argo II and its occupants. While Mirage could teleport using his Mist form, I was far better at seeking out people - especially when they were asleep. Time in dreams also fluctuated greatly, so I could easily wait it out until the person I needed fell asleep. I couldn’t go back in time (at least I didn’t think so) but I could go back and relive a person’s memories. Still, I could slow down or speed up my perception of time in my AP form, basically allowing me to delve through someone’s entire past and memories within only a few seconds, or make them live out an entire scene within a few seconds.</p><p>Grabbing Death was easy. He was dreaming of building things with Ventus - his mind was clouded as he built, but things just seemed to pop into place and sorta made sense to his clouded mind. They appeared to be inventing together. A little robotic cat was in Death’s hair, but he didn’t seem to notice or otherwise didn’t mind.</p><p>I popped into his dreams and grabbed him, pulling him along into my dreamscape and slowing down his time, causing him to basically freeze in his state of surprise.</p><p>“Alright, now to…” I took a deep breath.</p><p>“Hey, don’t sweat it.” Mirage slapped me on the back. “Boss said it was safe.”</p><p>“She said I’d be fine and that it should be easy. That’s not the same. Removing Zytaveon is easy, like Boss said. But what happens when he’s not in his body is all up in the air.”</p><p>“Lighten up, Sandy. I’m here if things go sideways.”</p><p>“You have far more confidence in your ability than you really should. These are Primordial beings we’re talking about.”</p><p>“And we are a team built to fight the gods - <em> all </em> of them.”</p><p>“Blasphemers don’t always win. Usurpers don’t win forever. The Titans stretched beyond their positions. But the Titans were…they weren’t part <em> human </em>. Humans are fallible.”</p><p>Mirage swept a black fingernail under my chin. “Good thing half of us aren’t human.” I could swear I felt Mirage’s nail grow sharper, digging into my throat. “Don’t start getting doubts now, Sandy ol’ pall. It wouldn’t be wise to be getting cold feet now.” Mirage’s smile was anything but pleasing. “If Boss finds out you’re going against her orders out of fear, I wonder who’ll be the one to discipline you?”</p><p>I gathered my courage and shoved Mirage’s hand away. “I’m not going against Boss’s orders. I’m just…pointing out facts. Come on. Let’s go get him.”</p><p>I swept my dreamscape into Ztaveon’s. I took a deep breath before reaching out towards his mental barriers. Mental barriers weren’t a problem for me, though Zytaveon’s were fortified heavily.</p><p>“<em> Who are you? </em>”</p><p>I jumped, seeing a woman in white robes appear sitting atop the barrier to Zytaveon’s mind.</p><p>In the dreamscape, people’s minds looked like bubbles floating around with barriers big and small. I could tap into dreams and minds when the barriers were glowing a light, translucent blue hue, but when they were black that meant someone was awake and inaccessible at the moment. But never before had a <em> person </em> emerged outside of their mental barriers before. Usually, people were <em> inside </em> their mental barriers, and moreover they resonated with the frequency of their personal barriers. This woman fit neither quota.</p><p>“Ah, look what we have here!” Mirage exclaimed. They were floating beside me, their body forming from Mist.</p><p>“<em> You are not welcome here. </em>” The woman in white’s voice resonated differently than the barrier she guarded - it resonated with the whole dreamscape itself.</p><p>“What <em> are </em> you?” I instinctively asked. “I’ve never seen anything like <em> this </em> happen.”</p><p>“She’s a Mist Manipulator,” Mirage said. “Powerful one at that. Looks like she’s absorbed a great deal of power from another sorceress to add atop her own, <em> and </em> she’s blessed with powers as a ghoul.”</p><p>“A ghoul?”</p><p>“Dead, but sustained by a single, powerful emotion. Something powerful gave her permission, however. Some<em> one </em> . How <em> amazing! </em> You’re truly a beautiful specimen, one I would enjoy dissecting, greatly.”</p><p>“Mirage…” I muttered.</p><p>“<em> Like I said, you are not welcome here. Leave. You will not enter my son’s mind. </em>”</p><p>“Your son? You’re his mother?”</p><p>“A sorceress of Hecate,” Mirage mused. “But she’s dead. No body, sustained by powers far beyond her. She is a guardian of Zytaveon’s mind.”</p><p>“So…what do we do?”</p><p>“We do as Boss said. We retrieve Zytaveon and then find Hades.” Mirage summoned a wave of energy to their palm.</p><p>The woman in white frowned. “<em> You would challenge me? How very bold of you. </em>”</p><p>Mirage threw out a blast of energy, a beam aimed straight at the woman. She swept her hand forward and backhanded Mirage’s attack, dispelling it into a cloud of white dust that blew outwards in all directions before dissipating.</p><p>“Ooo, she’s got some bite to her.” Mirage didn’t look disappointed that their attack had failed. In fact, they looked invigorated at the prospect.</p><p>I knew Mirage was dangerous, but rarely could we ever find someone who could stand up to their powers properly - meaning we’d never really seen Mirage upset or actually having to try very hard. I didn’t want to be the one to be present when and if Mirage met their match. That sounded like a nightmare! I wasn’t equipped to handle Mirage if they snapped. Famine and Forge, maybe War, who <em> knows </em> what would happen with Lust (she’d either be encouraging Miage and/or standing on the sidelines with popcorn watching the show) - they’d all probably handle this far better than <em> I </em> could.</p><p>Before a fight could commence, the dreamscape shook violently. I felt a dark presence breaking through the area, making me feel sick. I would’ve hurled if I had been in my real body from the intensity of the powerful, sickeningly dark aura that shot through the dreamscape. I wanted to call to Mirage, but they seemed just as surprised. Their sclera bled black, their pupils turning pure white, darting around trying to discern the threat.</p><p>I pushed what I could still control of the dreamscape, backing myself up to take cover. I realized that the dark aura was bleeding from the barrier surrounding Zytaveon’s mind. It crawled up the domed barrier towards the woman in white, but she didn’t seem perturbed. She raised her hand as her own aura glowed white. She slammed her hand down on the barrier as if disciplining a troublesome child. The ripple effect blasted the dark approaching presence that was consuming the dreamscape back with an equally powerful wave of clearing air.</p><p>“Whoa-ho! What a woman!” Mirage exclaimed. They were smiling once more.</p><p>I <em> knew </em> coming here would be a bad idea.</p><p>“<em> Your presence here draws the Pit’s cognizance. Leave here at once </em>.”</p><p>“Mother, it’s okay.”</p><p>Emerging from the barrier, walking into the dreamscape, was Zytaveon. He was…tall? There was little to say about him. He seemed so…mortal. For a guy that was hosting a dangerous Primordial entity, he was pretty chill.</p><p>“I’ll be back. Keep guard here, okay?”</p><p>The woman in white stared at him - not with malcontent, but more like…well like a parent trusting their child to handle themself in a dangerous word. She nodded towards him to go on and then melted back into the barrier to Zytaveon’s mind.</p><p>Zytaveon walked towards us (even though in the dreamscape he technically could just fly) with his hands in his jean pockets. His calm demeanor was scary in that same way that Famine or even Lust’s were.</p><p>“My apologies for the disturbance,” he said. “My mother, Zoraya, is doing so much for me and my protection. I was dealing with some business, but I’m free now.” He waved his hand towards Death and he suddenly fell free, released from the hold of my powers. “Azrael, are you all right?”</p><p>Death looked utterly baffled. He was looking around, taking in the situation quickly. He took control and began hovering himself upright. “What’s happening?” He glanced at Mirage warily. “Why are…<em> they </em> here?” His eyes darted to me for only a second before returning to Mirage.</p><p>“We have to get into contact with the others,” Zytaveon explained. “Dreams are the easiest method of seeking others out. The Veil and the dreamscape are the best methods of travel. I’m <em> okay </em> at dream-travel, but Sandy is far superior.”</p><p>I glanced at Mirage, who simply shrugged. He knew my name. He knew to call me ‘Sandy.’</p><p>“Okay…” Death still seemed uncertain.</p><p>“We also have someone to find involving my father,” Zytaveon went on. That got Death’s attention. “So. Shall we be off?”</p><hr/><p>“The Scepter of Diocletian exploded recently,” Death explained. “Anyone with an underworld sense must have felt it; it was a beacon. It seems Ane managed to absorb enough of the scepter’s power to mimic it. She can summon the souls of the dead, though because of her relation to Zenobia, the power is centralized around those who had died with a passion remaining. Romans are easy; they die for a cause and will fight for their empire even in death. They’re not the only ones she can summon - just the easiest, especially considering Diocletian’s actual scepter centered around Romans specifically.”</p><p>“So, we following that track?” Mirage asked as we floated through the dreamscape at a lazy pace.</p><p>“No.” Zytaveon clapped his hand down on my shoulder and suddenly we were dragged through the dreamscape forcefully.</p><p>“<em> Well, </em> this <em> isn’t good. </em>”</p><p>Thoughts flowed through my head. What did I do wrong this time? Maybe we’d teleported into a den of Cyclopes, or a thousand feet above another volcano. There was nothing to be done either way. Dreams and death were old friends.</p><p>“Searching for Thalia Grace…”</p><p>We rushed past fragments of painful memories - a mother smiling down on me, her face illuminated by the sunlight rippling off the Venetian Grand Canal; my sister Bianca laughing as she pulled me across the Mall in Washington, D.C., her green floppy hat shading her eyes and the splash of freckles across her nose. Percy Jackson on a snowy cliff outside Westover Hall, shielding me and Bianca from the manticore as I clutched a Mythomagic figurine and whispered, ‘<em> I’m scared. </em> ’ Minos, a ghostly mentor, leading me through the Labyrinth. Minos’s smile was cold and cruel. ‘ <em> Don’t worry, son of Hades. You will have your revenge. </em>’</p><p>Memories cluttered the dreams like the ghosts of Asphodel - an aimless, sorrowful mob pleading for attention. ‘<em> Save me </em> ,’ they seemed to whisper. ‘ <em> Remember me. Help me. Comfort me. </em>’</p><p>“<em> I am a son of Hades. I go where I wish. The darkness is my birthright. </em>”</p><p>I shoved them out of the way, focusing and managing to manipulate the dreamscape and transforming the memories into bubbles, floating in the air around me. There were so many; so much darkness and regret and pain. I focused, causing the bubbles to float out of my path. I was alone, but I sensed the presence of the others scattered not far away in the clutter. The dreamscape was now a gray and black terrain.</p><p>Memories like this usually only came from Ward children. Normal demigods had bad lives, sure, but I’d never met an outsider with such a horrific backstory. I wasn’t expecting it, I admit.</p><p>“Whoa-!”</p><p>I heard Mirage tossed by vertigo as I myself ended up being sucked by a powerful force. If I were alone, avoiding being dragged against my will wouldn’t have been a problem, but while I was connected to both Mirage and two (three with Zytaveon having connected to his brother) others, they all dragged me along like an anchor. The ground dissolved and I fell into a familiar backwater - the Hypnos cabin at Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>Buried under piles of feather comforters, snoring demigods nestled in their bunks. Above the mantel, a dark tree branch dropped milky water from the River Lethe into a bowl. A cheerful fire crackled in the fireplace. In front of it, in a leather armchair, dozed the head counselor for Cabin Fifteen - a pot-bellied guy with unruly blond hair and a gentle bovine face.</p><p>“Clovis,” a voice growled, “for the gods’ sake, stop <em> dreaming </em> so powerfully!”</p><p>Clovis’s eyes fluttered open. He turned, his eyes darting around the room, though this was simply part of Clovis’s own dreamscape. The actual Clovis would still be snoring in his armchair back at camp.</p><p>“Clovis, what a…surprise.” I saw Zytaveon walk forward in the dreamscape, moving to stand next to another figure. Ah, the other son of Hades - Nico di Angelo.</p><p>After an incident of shadow-traveling and their souls merging, the brothers had become connected - allowing Zytaveon to track his brother and lock on to his location through shadow-travel or in the dream world.</p><p>Zytaveon held his hand up, palm towards me, a gesture that forced me back. He was saying that we weren’t to interfere. Though he had been so staggeringly calm, I was right to compare him to Famine or Lust. He was powerful enough to push against my control over the dreamscape. Mirage and Death were waiting beside me. Even Mirage’s smirk was gone, and their face was solemn like when they were taking orders from Boss.</p><p>“Clovis, don’t tell me you dragged <em> both </em> of us here,” Nico growled.</p><p>Clovis’s eyes focused on the two of them lazily. “Oh, hi…” Clovis yawned wide enough to swallow a minor god. “Sorry. Did I pull you off course again?”</p><p>Nico grit his teeth. There was no point in getting upset. The Hypnos cabin was like a Grand Central Station for dream activity. You couldn’t travel <em> anywhere </em> without going through it once in a while. While trying to visit Camp Half-Blood, I was always tugged towards the cabin every now and then - not because I wasn’t strong enough to resist being dragged through the dreamscape, but because I was so tempted just to lie down and sleep even in the dream world. Being active when I was asleep technically didn’t count as truly restful sleep, after all.</p><p>“As long as I’m here,” Nico said, “pass along a message. Tell Chiron I’m on my way with a few friends. We’re bringing the Athena Parthenos.”</p><p>Clovis rubbed his eyes. “So it’s true? How are you bringing it? Did you rent a van or something?”</p><p>Nico explained things as concisely as possible. Messages sent through dreams tended to get fuzzy around the edges, especially when you were dealing with Clovis. The simpler, the better.</p><p>“We’re being followed by a hunter,” Nico continued. “One of Gaea’s giants, I think. Can you get that message to Thalia Grace? You’re better at finding people in dreams than I am. I need her advice.”</p><p>“I’ll try.”</p><p>“Nico, I need to tell you about that, actually,” Zytaveon said. Based on Nico’s lack of surprise from his brother’s presence, I assumed that they communicated through their dreams often. “I’ll send a messenger. Bring Ane.”</p><p>He patted Nico on the shoulder before dragging the rest of us back into the dreamscape. I saw the fading image of Clovis fumbling for a cup of hot chocolate on the side table. “Uh, before you go, Nico, do you have a second?”</p><p>“Clovis, this is a dream,” Nico reminded him. “Time is fluid-”</p><p>The image faded to a white landscape mired in fog. I realized that I was paralyzed in fear from the powerful presence that Zytaveon gave off. He had so much power over the dreamscape that I didn’t even stand a chance! I <em> knew </em> I was the weakest of the team. What were we even thinking, comparing our power to that of the gods? The Wards raised us to be stronger than any regular demigods and even to fight deities if ever they became a threat. I’d been worried about how deep we could get in over our heads if we faced a truly powerful god, but Boss had assured me that we would be fine. I had convinced myself that Tartarus was extremely weakened while in Zytaveon, but I realized that Zytaveon himself was ruling over Tartarus’s power - and he was getting the hang of it staggeringly quickly.</p><p>“Shall we be off?” he said. “Azrael?”</p><p>Death nodded. “Let’s hurry. I wanna go back to sleep.”</p><p>“You <em> are </em> asleep.”</p><p>“You know what I mean!”</p><p>“You wanna get back to Kaze?”</p><p>“I’m…worried about being away for too long. Who knows what will happen if I’m not there?”</p><p>“Yes, and I’m sure the dream date you were going on was <em> very </em> concerning.”</p><p>Death shoved him. A dangerous, Primordial entity. Was shoved by a boy that was a whole head and a half shorter.</p><p>“He’s probably wondering where I went! It must look like I’ve gotten captured to him. <em> You </em> are going to handle the chaos that he will bring while he thinks I’ve been kidnapped.”</p><p>Their interaction was very…casual. Their teasing felt out of place for how tense I felt.</p><p>“Well then, let’s be off, shall we?”</p><hr/><p>Third Person: Ane</p><p>“Coach, I don’t think-”</p><p>Hedge continued, leaning down to shake Nico by the shoulders. “Nico, wake up. We’ve got problems.”</p><p>Nico sat up so quickly he head-butted the satyr in the nose.</p><p>“OW! Jeez, kid, you got a hard noggin!”</p><p>“I warned you…” Ane muttered.</p><p>“Do…” her familiar muttered. The stuffed poodle was sitting on her shoulder.</p><p>“S-Sorry, Coach.” Nico blinked, trying to get his bearings. “What’s going on?”</p><p>He didn’t see any immediate threat. We were camped on a sunny lawn in the middle of a public square. Beds of orange marigolds bloomed all around us. Reyna was sleeping curled up, with her two metal dogs at her feet. A stone’s throw away, little kids played tag around a white marble fountain. At a nearby sidewalk cafe, half a dozen people sipped coffee in the shade of patio umbrellas. A few delivery vans were parked along the edges of the square, but there was no traffic. The only pedestrians were a few families, probably locals, enjoying a warm afternoon. The square itself was cobblestone pavement, edged with white stucco buildings and lemon trees. In the center stood the well-preserved shell of a Roman temple. Its square base stretched maybe fifty feet wide and ten feet tall, with an intact façade of Corinthian columns raising another twenty-five feet. And at the top of the colonnade…”</p><p>Nico’s mouth went dry. “Oh, Styx…”</p><p>The Athena Parthenos lay sideways along the tops of the columns like a nightclub singer sprawled across a piano. Lengthwise, she fit almost perfectly, but with Nike in her extended hand she was a bit too wide. She looked like she might topple forward any moment.</p><p>“What is she <em> doing </em> up there?” Nico asked.</p><p>“You tell me.” Hedge rubbed his bruised nose.</p><p>“That’s where we appeared,” Ane explained.</p><p>“Almost fell to our deaths, but luckily I’ve not nimble hooves.”</p><p>“<em> I </em> died.” Ane shrugged and spoke with a smile. “It was pretty mundane, really.” She pat her chest. “Another falling to my death under my belt. I think I’m in the 2000s right now! With Big Sister and all. She’s been dying a lot lately.”</p><p>“You were unconscious, hanging in your harness like a tangled paratrooper until we managed to get you down.”</p><p>“<em> Oodles </em> managed to get you down.” Ane’s stuffed poodle blinked.</p><p>Coach Hedge was temporarily diverted. “Your poodle is named ‘Oodles’?”</p><p>“Yes. Haven’t I told you before? My father named my <em> Pūdoru </em> Oodles. I think he said something about noodles and I said ‘poodles’ and somehow we just came to an agreement of Oodles. I was still learning English, so he said that ‘Oodles’ was its English name. <em> Pūdoru </em> is my familiar. She was tiny enough to get to you and release your harness. I caught you.”</p><p>“More like you broke his fall and he broke the poodle’s,” Hedge corrected.</p><p>“I saved your life,” Ane reaffirmed.</p><p>Nico looked like he was trying to picture it, then decided he’d rather not. “Is this Spain?”</p><p>“Portugal,” Hedge said. “You overshot. By the way, Reyna speaks <em> Spanish </em>; she does not speak Portuguese. Somehow Ane can string together sentences, and that was enough.”</p><p>“Rei did a lot of traveling,” Ane explained.</p><p>“Anyway, while you were asleep, we figured out this city is Évora. Good news: it’s a sleepy little place. Nobody’s bothered us. Nobody seems to notice the giant Athena sleeping on top of the Roman temple, which is called the Temple of Diana, in case you were wondering. And people here appreciate my street performances! I’ve made about sixteen euros.” He picked up his baseball cap, which jangled with coins.</p><p>“That’s around seventeen and a third dollars,” Ane added.</p><p>Nico looked ill. “Street performances?”</p><p>“A little singing, a little martial arts, some interpretive dance.”</p><p>“I used the magic toy trick.” Ane’s poodle stood on her shoulder and climbed on her head, doing a little dance as Ane spread her arms and mirrored the stuffed animal, raising the opposite arm and spinning in the opposite direction.</p><p>“Wow,” Nico said. It was hard to detect the sarcasm. At least Nico had the skill to act neutrally impressed without offending people.</p><p>“I know!” Hedge went on. “The Portuguese have taste. Anyway, I supposed this was a decent place to lie low for a couple of days.”</p><p>Nico stared at him. “A couple of <em> days? </em>”</p><p>“Hey, kid, we didn’t have much choice. In case you haven’t noticed, you’ve been working yourself to death with all that shadow-jumping. We tried to wake you up last night. No dice.”</p><p>“So I’ve been asleep for-”</p><p>“About thirty-six hours. You needed it.”</p><p>Nico might’ve fallen down had he not already been sitting. He could’ve sworn he’d only slept a few minutes, but as his drowsiness faded, he realized he felt more clear-headed and rested than he had in weeks, maybe since before he went looking for the Doors of Death.</p><p>“I’ve been helping sustain you,” Ane volunteered, “but giving you energy is different from keeping you alive. I agreed. You needed real sleep. <em> And </em> real food.”</p><p>Nico’s stomach growled in confirmation.</p><p>Coach Hedge raised an eyebrow. “You must be hungry. Either that, or your stomach speaks hedgehog. That was <em> quite </em> a statement in hedgehog.”</p><p>“Food would be good,” Nico agreed. “But first, what’s the bad news…I mean, aside from the statue being sideways? You said we had trouble.”</p><p>“Oh, right.” The coach pointed to a gated archway at the corner of the square. Standing in the shadows was a glowing, vaguely human figure outlined in gray flames. The spirit’s features were indistinct, but it seemed to be beckoning to Nico.</p><p>“Burning Man showed up a few minutes ago,” Coach Hedge explained. “He doesn’t get any closer. When I tried to go over there, he disappeared. Ane went over, but she said that it wanted you to join her.”</p><p>“Not sure if he’s a threat, but he doesn’t seem hostile,” Ane said. “He wants to show us something. He’s got similar energies to something from Tartarus. Believe me, I would recognize it.”</p><p>Nico mused that once he would’ve had a heart-attack at hearing a statement like that. As recently as finding the Doors of Death to close them, he’d stopped being afraid of Tartarus necessarily, and more being cautious with it. He was familiar with the darkness, his home was the Underworld, and now he was even becoming comfortable with Tartarus. Mostly, it was because Veon had merged with the power of Tartarus (he had told Nico before they’d parted back at Epirus, but Nico himself would’ve been able to sense it through their bond anyway), and so Nico’s soul had started to become accustomed to the presence. Ane’s power that she had been giving him had also contributed, since she was a monster from Tartarus and radiated the same type of energy whenever she siphoned energy into him. Otherwise, she did do a good job of hiding herself.</p><p>“So…want some fries before we go?”</p><hr/><p>Nico assumed it was a trap. Most things were. But Coach Hedge promised he could guard Reyna for a little longer, and on the off chance the spirit had something useful to say, Nico decided it was worth the risk. He unsheathed his Stygian iron blade and led the charge as he and Ane approached the archway.</p><p>Normally, ghosts didn’t scare him (assuming, of course, Gaea hadn’t encased then in shells of stone and turned them into killing machines. That had been a new one for him). After his experience with Minos, Nico realized that most spectors held only as much power as you allowed them to have. They pried into your mind, using fear or anger or longing to influence you. Even Ane used her innocence to her advantage in the same way. Nico had learned to shield himself. Sometimes he could even turn the tables and bend ghosts to his will.</p><p>As they approached the fiery gray apparition, he was fairly sure it was a garden-variety wraith - a lost soul who had died in pain. Shouldn’t be a problem. Still, Nico took nothing for granted. He remembered Croatia all too well. He’d gone into that situation smug and confident, only to have his feet swept out from under him, literally and emotionally. First Jason Grace had grabbed him and flown him over a wall. Then the god Favonius had dissolved him into wind. And as for that arrogant thug, Cupid…</p><p>Ane noticed as Nico clenched his sword. Sharing his secret crush hadn’t been the worst of it. Eventually he might have done that, in his own time, in his own way. But being <em> forced </em> to talk about Percy, being bullied and harassed and strong-armed simply for Cupid’s amusement…</p><p>Tendrils of darkness were now spreading out from his feet, killing all the weeds between the cobblestones. Ane put her hand on Nico’s. Ane was not Rei, Nico was not Zytaveon. Still, she hoped that she could somehow support Nico in a similar manner. Ane knew all about Rei, and she knew how much Rei had wanted to protect Veon, be a supportive crutch while he was going through tough things. Ane knew the overwhelming desire to avoid her fate if it meant saving Veon from his.</p><p>Ane had never had any siblings, but ever since she’d come to the overworld, she had desires for friends and family. Ane was tired of being alone, stuck with herself for eternity, wondering how long she would live like that. She was eternal, she had come to realize. If she died, she would just be reborn in Tartarus. Rei, perhaps through some perfect circumstances, could die and go to the normal underworld. Perhaps Rei could even destroy her own soul. But Ane couldn’t do that. She would be awake and aware as a partly-human monster for the rest of eternity. But being in the overworld certainly was better than Tartarus. She liked Nico and Reyna and even Coach Hedge. She liked Kaze and her invisible friends. She had once loathed Rei for leaving her behind, to pick up the trash left each time she died and receive her mother’s blessing. Now, Ane was…thankful. She had the chance to be herself, and she was going to do something good with her life for her new friends, if only that would make up for her existence.</p><p>Once they reached the ghost, they saw it wore a monk’s habit - sandals, woolen robes, a wooden cross around his neck. Gray flames swirled around him - burning his sleeves, blistering his face, turning his eyebrows to ashes. He seemed to be stuck in the moment of his immolation, like a black-and-white video on a permanent loop.</p><p>“You were burned alive,” Nico sensed. “Probably in the Middle Ages?”</p><p>The ghost’s face distorted in a silent scream of agony, but his eyes looked bored, even a little annoyed, as if the scream was just an automatic reflex he couldn’t control.</p><p>“I brought him,” Ane told the ghost. “Now what do you want of us?”</p><p>The ghost gestured for them to follow. It turned and walked through the open gateway. Nico glanced back at Coach Hedge. The satyr just made a shooing gesture like, ‘<em> Go. Do your Underworld thing. </em>’</p><p>They trailed the ghost through the streets of Évora. They zigzagged through narrow cobblestone walkways, past courtyards with potted hibiscus trees, and white stucco buildings with butterscotch trim and wrought-iron balconies. No one noticed the ghost, but the locals looked askance at Nico. A young girl with a fox terrier crossed the street to avoid him. Her dog growled, the hair on its back standing straight up like a dorsal fin.</p><p>“Just play along,” Ane whispered. “Say, ‘<em> Irmã volte! </em> ’ She dashed ahead of Nico after the ghost, letting out a loud giggle. “ <em> Siga-me, irmão! </em>” she announced.</p><p>Nico blinked, but he only hesitated a moment before hurrying after Ane. He sheathed his sword and ran more naturally. “<em> Irmã volte! </em> Ane!”</p><p>The glances that came their way were far less hostile - a little surprised, but people went back to their own business easily enough. Nico’s accent was clearly hitting more Italian accents and beats, but otherwise he managed to sound not-American. Ane’s accent was clearly hitting Japanese ticks, so either way both of them sounded far from actually Portuguese, but they looked more like a tourist pair of siblings rather than a hostile teenager and child radiating waves of death with one of them wielding a black sword.</p><p>Luckily, the ghost sped up as they did, allowing Ane to stay ahead of Nico and lead them to where they were going. They were taken to another public square, anchored at one end by a large square church with whitewashed walls and limestone arches. The ghost passed through the portico and disappeared inside. Ane paused at the steps, allowing Nico to catch up with her. They had nothing against churches, but this one radiated death. Inside would be tombs, or perhaps something less pleasant…</p><p>Ane nodded to Nico. He returned the gesture. They ducked through the doorway. Ane’s eyes were drawn to a side chapel, lit from within by eerie golden light. Carved over the door was a Portuguese inscription. Nico didn’t speak the language, but he remembered his childhood Italian well enough to glean the general meaning: ‘<em> We, the bones that are here, await yours. </em>’</p><p>“<em> Bene, questo è…allegro, </em>” Ane muttered in Italian.</p><p>Nico chuckled, not really humorlessly, but not in any actually amused way. It was often hard to gauge Nico’s mood.</p><p>They entered the chapel. At the far end stood an altar, where the fiery wraith knelt in prayer, but they were more interested in the room itself. The walls were constructed of bones and skulls - thousands upon thousands, cemented together. Columns of bones held up a vaulted ceiling decorated with images of death. On one wall, like coats on a coat rack, hung the desiccated, skeletal remains of two people - an adult and a small child.</p><p>“A beautiful room, isn’t it?”</p><p>“Veon!” Ane exclaimed excitedly. She dashed over and hugged him. She only went up to his thighs in terms of height, but he knelt down to greet her.</p><p>“Hello, little Ane.”</p><p>“What are <em> you </em> doing here?”</p><p>“That’s right, you said you’d send a messenger,” Nico muttered.</p><p>“Ah, so you remember.” Veon picked Ane up into his arms. Her poodle climbed onto his head. He plucked it off and passed it back to Ane. “I was concerned the dream would be too blurry for you to remember, but I needed to speak with you in person.”</p><p>“So what’s so important?”</p><p>“I can tell you at any time. We should let the one with limited time go first. Azrael?”</p><p>“Ah, thank you.” A deep voice that wasn’t Azrael’s rang out.</p><p>Nico turned. A year ago, he would’ve jumped out of his skin if his father suddenly appeared next to him. Now, Nico was able to control his heart rate, along with his desire to knee his father in the groin and run away. Like the wraith, Hades was dressed in the habit of a Franciscan monk, which Nico found vaguely disturbing. His black robes were tied at the waist with a simple white cord. His cowl was pushed back, revealing dark hair shorn close to the scalp and eyes that glittered like frozen tar. The god’s expression was calm and content, as if he’d just come home from a lovely evening strolling through the Fields of Punishment, enjoying the screams of the damned.</p><p>“Getting some redecorating ideas?” Nico asked. “Maybe you could do your dining room in medieval monk skulls.”</p><p>Hades arched an eyebrow. “I can never tell when you’re joking.”</p><p>“He has that special skill, it’s true,” Veon said.</p><p>Nico gave him a sidelong glance before returning his attention to Hades. “Why are you here, Father? <em> How </em> are you here?”</p><p>Hades traced his fingers along the nearest column, leaving bleached white marks on the old bones. “Many things brought me here - including your brother’s assistance, as well as the Reaper child. You’re a hard mortal to find, my son. For several days I’ve been searching. When the scepter of Diocletian exploded…well, that got <em> all </em> of our attention.”</p><p>Nico felt a flush of shame. Then he felt angry for feeling ashamed. “Breaking the scepter wasn’t my fault. We were about to be overrun-”</p><p>“Oh the scepter isn’t important. A relic that old, I’m surprised you got two uses out of it. The explosion simply gave me some clarity; it allowed me to pinpoint your location. I was hoping to speak to you in Pompeii, but it is so…well, <em> Roman </em> . This chapel was the first place where my presence was strong enough that I could appear to you as myself - by which I mean <em> Hades </em> , god of the dead, not split with that <em> other </em> manifestation. Ane absorbed the power of the scepter upon its explosion, allowing me to track you after you left Pompeii.” Hades breathed in the stale dank air. “I am very drawn to this place. The remains of five thousand monks were used to build the Chapel of Bones. It serves as a reminder that life is short and death is eternal. I feel <em> focused </em> here. Your brother pulled you off course in order to bring you here and give me extra time. Even so, I only have a few moments.”</p><p>“<b> <em>Story of our relationship,</em> </b> ” Nico thought. “ <b> <em>You only have a few moments.</em> </b>”</p><p>“So tell me, Father. What do you want?”</p><p>Hades clasped his hands together in the sleeves of his robe. “Can you entertain the notion that I might be here to help you, not simply because I want something?”</p><p>Nico almost laughed, but his chest felt too hollow. “I can entertain the notion that you might be here for multiple reasons.”</p><p>The god frowned. “I suppose that’s fair enough. You seek information about Gaea’s hunter. His name is Orion.”</p><p>Nico hesitated. He wasn’t used to getting a direct answer, without games or riddles or quests. “Orion. Like the constellation. Wasn’t he…a friend of Artemis?”</p><p>“He was,” Hades said. “A giant, born to oppose the twins, Apollo and Artemis, but much like Artemis, Orion rejected his destiny. He sought to live on his own terms. First he tried to live among mortals as a huntsman for the king of Khios. He, ah, ran into some trouble with the king’s daughter. The kind had Orion blinded and exiled.”</p><p>Nico thought back to what Reyna had told him. “My friend dreamed of a hunter with glowing eyes. If Orion is blind-”</p><p>“He <em> was </em> blind,” Veon corrected. “Shortly after his exile, Orion met Hephaestus, who took pity on the giant and crafted him new mechanical eyes even better than the originals. Orion became friends with Artemis. He was the first male ever allowed to join her Hunt.”</p><p>“But…things went wrong between them,” Hades continued. “How exactly, I do not know. Orion was slain. Now he has returned as a loyal son of Gaea, ready to do her bidding. He is driven by bitterness and anger. You can understand that.”</p><p>Nico wanted to yell, ‘<em> Like you know what I felt?! </em>’ Instead he asked, “How do we stop him?”</p><p>“You cannot,” Hades said. “Your only hope is to outrun him, accomplish your quest before he reaches you. Apollo or Artemis <em> might </em> be able to slay him, arrows against arrows, but the twins are in no condition to aid you. Even now, Orion has your scent. His hunting pack is almost upon you. You won’t have the luxury of more rest from here to Camp Half-Blood.”</p><p>“Ane’s slight relationship with Rei gives her a little power from Apollo,” Veon explained. He set Ane on her feet and then reached into his bag to pull out a small cylinder reminiscent of the retractable weapons that Kaze made.</p><p>Ane’s eyes lit up and she took the weapon excitedly. “From Kaze?”</p><p>He nodded. “Yes. He said he was sending his love. And to give you a backup or three.” He gave Ane three different cylinders. “This one is identical to the first. These two work in tandem as a bow and a quiver. The first two have enchanted ammo that appears when you draw back the bowstring. You’re gonna have to learn how to use it quickly if you want to protect the others, but Kaze figured that your Remnants weren’t going to be enough in terms of actual combat if you had to summon them every time.”</p><p>“They’re amazing!”</p><p>“Do!” her poodle agreed from her shoulder.</p><p>“Tell Kaze thank you and I love him too and I hope he’s safe. Oh, and Azrael too.” She stared off to the side where she could see Azrael hiding in the Veil. She waved to both him and Sandy behind him hidden in an Astral-Projection in the dreamscape.</p><p>“We should get back to our companions,” Nico said. “We left Hedge on guard duty with Reyna.”</p><p>“Indeed,” Hades said. “But there is more. Your sister…” Hades faltered. As always, the subject of Bianca lay between them like a loaded gun - deadly, easy to reach, impossible to ignore. “I mean your <em> other </em> sister, Hazel…she has discovered that one of the Seven will die. She may try to prevent this. In doing so, she may lose sight of her priorities.”</p><p>Nico didn’t trust himself to speak. To his surprise, his thoughts didn’t leap first to Percy. His primary concern was for Hazel, then for Jason, then for Percy and the others aboard the Argo II. They’d saved him in Rome, they’d welcomed him aboard their ship. Nico had never allowed himself the luxury of friends, but the crew of the Argo II was as close as he’d ever come. The idea of any of them dying made him feel empty - like he was back in the giants’ bronze jar, alone in the dark, subsisting only on sour pomegranate seeds.</p><p>Finally he asked, “Is Hazel all right?”</p><p>“For the moment.”</p><p>“And the others? Who will die?”</p><p>Hades shook his head. “Even if I were certain, I could not say. I tell you this because you are my son. Regardless of how Zytaveon has changed and how he will go forward, you both are still linked. You both know some deaths cannot be prevented. Some deaths <em> should </em> not be prevented. When the time comes, you may need to act. Your brother is, ironically, limited by his current position at the moment. He will… <em> guide </em> the crew during their journey, and you will be on your own quest. But should things go as planned, you will have to make your own choices, and both of us trust you to understand what must be done.”</p><p>Nico didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t <em> want </em> to know.</p><p>“My son.” Hades’ tone was almost gentle. “Whatever happens, you have earned my respect. You brought honor to our house when we stood together against Kronos in Manhattan. You risked my wrath to help the Jackson boy - guiding him to the River Styx, freeing him from my prison, pleading with me to raise the armies of Erebos to assist him. Never before have I been so <em> harassed </em> by one of my sons. <em> Percy this </em> and <em> Percy that </em>. I nearly blasted you to cinders.”</p><p>Nico took a shallow breath. The walls of the room began to tremble, dust trickling from the cracks between the bones. “I didn’t do all that just for him. I did it because the whole world was in danger.”</p><p>Hades allowed himself the faintest smile, but there was nothing cruel in his eyes. “I can entertain the possibility that you acted for <em> multiple </em> reasons. My point is this: you and I rose to the aid of Olympus because you convinced me to let go of my anger. I would encourage you to do likewise. My children are so rarely happy. I…I would like to see you be an exception.”</p><p>Nico stared at his father. He didn’t know what to do with that statement. He could accept many unreal things - hordes of ghosts, magical labyrinths, travel through shadows, chapels made of bones. But tender words from the Lord of the Underworld? No. That made no sense.</p><p>Veon smiled. “Believe it or not, Hades isn’t a bad father, Nico. Although there <em> was </em> that time-”</p><p>“You can stop at just the praise, son.”</p><p>Veon smiled and crossed his arms. “Well he’s better than Zeus, anyway.”</p><p>“I didn’t force him into saying <em> anything </em>,” Hades muttered with a smirk.</p><p>“Oh, I have the right to say what I want when I’m handling Zeus’s worst nightmare. He has no room to complain, don’t worry. You’re also a favorite of…Rei’s.”</p><p>“By the way, I hope your mother is doing well.”</p><p>“I dare say she’s doing better than <em> I </em> am.”</p><p>Hades’s gaze looked wistful. “Not all deaths can be prevented, and no death is in vain.”</p><p>Over at the altar, the fiery ghost rose. He approached, burning and screaming silently, his eyes conveying some urgent message.</p><p>“Ah,” Hades said. “This is Brother Paloan. He’s one of hundreds who were burned alive in the square near the old Roman temple. The Inquisition had its headquarters there, you know. At any rate, he suggests you leave now. You have very little time before the wolves arrive.”</p><p>“Wolves?” Nico repeated. “You mean Orion’s pack?”</p><p>“I think some help is on the way,” Veon said. “Ane, learn to use that bow, and take care of the others.”</p><p>She saluted. “<em> Hai! </em>”</p><p>Hades flicked his hand. The ghost of Brother Paloan disappeared. “My son, what are you attempting - shadow-travel across the world, carrying the statue of Athena - it may very well destroy you.”</p><p>“Thanks for the encouragement.”</p><p>Hades placed his hands briefly on Nico’s shoulders. Nico didn’t like being touched, but somehow this brief contact with his father felt reassuring - the same way the Chapel of Bones was reassuring. Like death, his father’s presence was cold and often callous, but it was <em> real </em> - brutally honest, inescapably dependable. Nico found a sort of freedom in knowing that eventually, no matter what happened he would end up at the foot of his father’s throne.</p><p>“I will see you again,” Hades promised. “I will prepare a room for you at the palace in case you do not survive. Perhaps your chambers would look good decorated with the skulls of monks.”</p><p>“Now I can’t tell if <em> you’re </em> joking.”</p><p>“I appreciate some skulls, but not a room made of them please,” Veon said.</p><p>Hades’s eyes glittered as his form began to fade. “Perhaps we are alike in some important ways.” The god vanished.</p><p>“Before you go,” Veon said. “You need to know about some individuals who we’ve been encountering and who may be your allies or may be your enemies.” Veon went into a quick explanation of the Ward children. “I can’t give you a list of specifics - no time - but Kaze sent some info with Ane’s weapons. Luckily they don’t seem keen on hiding their abilities, but it <em> does </em> add to the intimidation factor. You shouldn’t trust me, Nico, not with what I’m going through right now. You should be afraid of me right now. But whatever… <em> he </em> is doing, I’ve still got my consciousness intact. I’m trying to do something, act, help the Argo II, help <em> you </em> . Sadly, this power is…difficult to control. But I want you to be careful. Not only are you important to this mission in stopping Gaea, but Dad wasn’t alone when he said he wanted you to be happy. After everything that’s happened, at least <em> one </em> of us deserves a chance to be normal for a change.”</p><p>Ane opened up a holographic screen to find a literal essay on each of the Ward children. “That doesn’t look good,” she admitted.</p><p>“They’re…special circumstances,” Veon admitted. “They may help you, they may be…neutral. I don’t think they mean any harm. Yet. Don’t be surprised about how they act, don’t expect anything from them, but don’t be arrogant if they <em> are </em> helpful. Any sign of weakness, they will take negatively. I know you and Reyna are level-headed enough to hopefully handle the situation if they show up, but just be warned that they come in all different…personas, but all of them are equally deadly. Take nothing at face value, and make no assumptions.”</p><p>Ane scrolled through some of the list, her eyes darting across the words quickly. “Okay. I’ve got the gist of it.”</p><p>“That fast?” Nico asked.</p><p>“Over 2000 brains in here,” Ane reminded them, tapping her forehead. “More than three-quarters of them can read. All of them choose to read a random section and I’ve processed the whole thing already. Veon…” She tried to find her words. “I’m not sure if…these are Facility children, right? The Wards were…they were bad, but…people like this…” Ane couldn’t seem to articulate her thoughts.</p><p>Veon knelt in front of her and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. “I know, Ane. You feel they’re just like you. In a way, perhaps they are. So you should know just how unstable they can be.”</p><p>She nodded. “If they hinder us, show them no mercy.” She gripped her new weapon tightly. “I understand.”</p><p>“Stay safe, Ane.” Veon stood straight. “Listen to me, Nico. Before I go…know that I believe in you. Whatever happens, I’m proud that, out of everything that’s happened to me and what I’ve done, being related to someone as awesome as you is one of the best things in my life.”</p><p>Nico raised an eyebrow. “That better not be saying <em> you </em> think I’m going to die too.”</p><p>“Have more faith in me, Nico. It’s funny how you think death will sever our relationship. <em> Your </em> death, anyway.”</p><p>Veon gave a two-fingered salute before he vanished as well, taking with him the presence of Sandy and the others.</p><p>Ane squeezed her poodle in her arms. “Stay safe.”</p><p>Suddenly the chapel felt oppressive - thousands of hollow eye sockets staring at them. ‘<em> We, the bones that are here, await yours </em>.’</p><p>They hurried out of the church, hoping they remembered the way back to their friends.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>‘Siga-me, irmão!’ - Follow me, brother!<br/>‘Irmã volte!’ - Sister, come back!<br/>‘Bene, questo è…allegro’ - Well, this is…cheerful.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Escaping Évora</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I don’t like getting into real-life serious matters, but it needs to be said:</p><p>To all essential workers - especially anyone working in hospitals - I know it’s really hard out there right now, so thank you so much for doing what you do. I rely on delivery people for food and groceries at the moment, I live with my parents who are on the cusp of that ‘elderly’ age range so we’re trying not to take risks going out for anything. There are so many people losing their jobs and income, and my dad was lucky to just need to work at home - he’s heard some people in his company have been laid off and that’s extremely scary to think that peoples’ entire lives are being ruined for something that’s entirely out of our control.<br/>I know that Arienne, one of the best readers and commenters I’ve ever had, is getting ridiculed for working as a doctor right now during a pandemic that they had no control over. The world has gone a bit crazy right now and I may not have a large reading audience, but I hope that everyone tries to spread the word that being rude is not going to make the situation any better. Please try and help the situation by not making the job of the doctors and nurses and emergency response teams, etc. any harder than it needs to be - they’re already going through a really trying time doing their best to help who they can. Blaming anyone isn’t gonna make the situation any better; crushing confidence is only going to hurt the little good that can be done when anyone who’s working and a lot of people laid off are already going through emotional strain right now. I know people in real life who were training as EMTs and it’s been a really hard road for them when they were graduating right into the fray.<br/>To Arienne: I’m glad you were able to leave even a small message saying that you’re out there and I hope that things will stabilize soon so that you can get a break to relax. I’m honored that you thought of me and my stories at this time. Doctors already go through a lot of hard work and schooling to get where they are, so I already have a big respect for them, but I have an even greater respect and sympathy for them while we’re all going through such a difficult time.</p><p>On a less real-world note:</p><p>I’ve seen some stuff where some Greek mythology nerds argued that Tartarus, Gaea, Erebos, etc. are not the actual children of Khaos and yeah I get it - Khaos is just a nebulous force without identity that just kinda exists until it doesn’t and most of the Primordial deities just kinda popped into existence on their own. But for the purposes of this story, the Primordial deities originated from some semblance of consciousness from Khaos. When it comes to gods on this scale, I consider actual familial relations obsolete; Tartarus and such will refer to Khaos as their parent and Khaos refers to everything as their children simply because those are the closest equivalents to their relationships. I refer to my dogs as my children because they are precious to me and I shall protect my pooches with my life. They are adorable fluff balls; I lurvs them. They bite me sometimes to say hello and/or to get food and my mom calls one of them a little bitch which is entirely accurate, but we still absolutely love dem floofs. It’s kinda like that.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Tartarus</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cut us a path, dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus rolled his eyes - a human tradition for expression annoyance at a repetitive offense. He reached down and tapped his index and middle finger against the grass. Walking forward, a dark crack pulsed with energy and expanded forward, following Tartarus’s hand. There were many ways to fall into Tartarus and few ways to crawl back up, but now that Tartarus was strong enough, he could tear his own chasm to his pit as he pleased - or at least as his parent allowed it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come here, my darlings~!” Khaos crooned. “Oh, this is going to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> brilliant! I missed seeing you during the last war because dear Gaea and Tartarus were being rude little ones, but now I get to greet you in full!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A monstrous roar rang out from the chasm that Tartarus ripped open. He knew that the crevice was far too small for his son’s full form, but Khaos had told him that he was condensing the form of all the soldiers that they were bringing to this war. Tartarus knew this was merely a game to Khaos, as all creation was. Where once these beings led their charge against Olympus and the gods, they had been stopped by demigods and their very humanity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus missed the old Second Titan War. Things felt so much simpler back then. Well, ‘simpler,’ being a relative term.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There. That looks nice and human for you.” Khaos had formed a tall man, nearly 7 feet tall, with a big, strong frame. Dressed in jeans, heavy combat boots, a large trench coat, and a bandana covering a mass of wild hair. His eyes were dark and cold, barely capable of rational thought. “It’ll have to do. Unfortunately, a giant kaiju is a bit too conspicuous for what we have to do. Intelligence is a bit lacking, but that’s the cost of power, isn’t it? And it’s why you’re not alone. You’ll have plenty of mental prowess to help you. Now for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Khaos turned to the second resident Tartarus had raised. He looked none too happy to be there, and just as happy as Tartarus was to be in a human body. On his back, hanging six feet down from the hilt at his head to the grass at his feet, was a large grey adamant sickle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s demeaning,” he growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t try to argue with it,” Tartarus muttered. “If you think it’s demeaning for </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, try and consider that </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> was subjugated. We are nothing compared to Khaos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right!” Khaos clapped their hands together with a cheerful jive, as if they </span>
  <em>
    <span>weren’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> holding all present company against their will. “You are all little pawns in my game of life. Isn’t it just </span>
  <em>
    <span>charming?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Now, I’m going to need you all to get along if you want to have a good time! You both are going to follow your new leader while I’m away. If you play your cards right, you might just get exactly what you’ve wanted.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what would </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus glanced at him. “Isn’t it obvious? The fall of the gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He raised an eyebrow. “We would get to rule in their place?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’d get to do whatever you want,” Khaos promised. “At least until I get bored again. You know how this works.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus met his gaze. Tartarus shook his head when he saw the questioning gaze. Tartarus was one of the older deities, and yet he had never seen something like this happen. Khaos had always existed in this world - as had Chaos and Order separately. But never had Khaos been joined together in a single host like this. Tartarus had known that Order could be a little unhinged at times, and Chaos could have a dark sense of humor, but…even Tartarus had considered himself tamer than what Khaos was at the moment, even when he’d gone a bit insane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was true, however, that it was simply how the world worked - each reign lasted until Khaos - Order, Chaos, or both - got bored and decided that it was time for a change. One ruler after another, usurper after usurper. That was how the cycle of the deities worked. It didn’t work with just Greek gods either. Khaos together was never supposed to exist as it was, mostly because they had jurisdiction over every religion and belief system; limiting them to only Greco-Roman mythology was like eating only chocolate to survive. Khaos looked like they were on a sugar high - not necessarily reminiscent of being on drugs or alcohol, they were far too competent and hyper with their scheming.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In any case, I’d like you to meet your new leader!” Khaos announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They waved as a swirl of white energy formed an oval portal. Someone walked through - a man with dark, storm-grey eyes that were cold and weary. Long dark hair flowed down his back in a braid that went down to his waist, laced with golden accents that added to the regal features of his face, framed by a golden circlet. He wore a modern formal military uniform, standing at attention as though observing his troops. He was an odd combination between modern human soldiers and an old-fashioned Greco-Roman warrior deity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Athena?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A stormy gaze locked onto the sickle-wielder. “Why would you say that?” His voice was very neutral, not necessarily feminine or masculine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You resemble Athena,” Tartarus shrugged. “Anyone would think that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiled. “Well, my apologies. Allow me to formally introduce myself.” He nodded towards the silent giant in the trench coat. “Typhon.” He nodded towards the man with the sickle. “Kronos.” He bowed his head, hands clasped behind his back. “I present my most hospitable greetings. I am called Metis.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wolves?” Reyna asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were eating dinner from a nearby sidewalk café. Despite Hades’s warning to hurry back, they had found nothing much changed at camp. Ane sent out one of her Remnants, 874, to scout the area for wolves just in case. Reyna had just awoken. The Athena Parthenos still lay sideways across the top of the temple. Coach Hedge was entertaining a few locals with tap dancing and martial arts, occasionally singing into his megaphone, though nobody seemed to understand what he was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico wished the coach hadn’t brought the megaphone. Not only was it loud and obnoxious, but also, for no reason Nico understood, it occasionally blurted out random Darth Vader lines from ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Star Wars</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ or yelled, “THE COW GOES MOO!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leo tampered with it a while back,” Ane explained. “Coach never bothered to get it fixed, or perhaps Leo felt no reason to repair it because he found it amusing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Brilliant,” Nico muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As the four of them sat on the lawn to eat, Reyna seemed alert and rested. She and Coach Hedge listened as Nico and Ane described the situation - dreams as well as their meeting with Hades and Veon at the Chapel of Bones. Nico held back a few personal details from the meeting with his family, though he sensed that Reyna knew plenty about wrestling with one’s feelings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When they mentioned Orion and the wolves that were supposedly on their way, Reyna frowned. “Most wolves are friendly to Romans. I’ve never heard stories about Orion hunting with a pack.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico finished his ham sandwich. He eyed the plate of pastries and was surprised to find he still had an appetite. “It could have been a figure of speech: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>very little time before the wolves arrive</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ Perhaps Hades didn’t literally mean wolves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or perhaps Orion is not using wolves directly, but Hades was warning us about wolves because they are closer than Orion,” Ane said. “I’ve dealt with vague prophecies and vaguer gods before. If Orion doesn’t hunt with a pack naturally, then it’s likely the wolves are a separate threat or mercenaries for hire.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At any rate, we should leave as soon as it’s dark enough for shadows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge stuffed an issue of Guns &amp; Ammo into his bag. “Only problem: the Athena Parthenos is still thirty feet in the air. Gonna be fun hauling you guys and your gear to the top of that temple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Ane’s poodle waved its arm from her shoulder like it was trying to swat an invisible bug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right,” Ane agreed. “If I can shoot an arrow with a rope up there and make sure that we’re all connected to our stuff, then perhaps we can connect to the statue from ground level. If that doesn’t work, maybe we just send Hedge up there with a rope and have him toss it down to the same effect. You can shadow-travel so long as you have physical contact in some way - which is why we gave you a harness. It isn’t as ideal as a harness, but we </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> have some extra rope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico glanced up at the statue. “It could work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane drew her bow, summoning a small bow that fit her size. She had practiced shooting regular arrows, and though she needed a little practice, she managed to at least make sure the arrow went in the right direction, even if she wasn’t pinpoint accurate. She tested her ability to summon a rope on the arrow as well, which skewed her accuracy on the first try, but she could pull on the rope to return to her effortlessly. She tried a few more shots, raising her angle each time to see how far she could get the arrow to fly before gravity took over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico tried a pastry. The lady at the café had called them ‘farturas.’ They looked like spiral donuts and tasted great (</span>
  <b>AN: in the book this says ‘They looked like a spiral donuts and tasted great’; ah finding them errors in a published book</b>
  <span>) - just the right combination of crispy, sugary, and buttery, but when Nico first heard ‘fartura,’ he knew Percy would have made a joke out of the name. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>America has do-nuts</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ Percy would’ve said, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Portugal has fart-nuts.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ The older Nico got, the more juvenile Percy seemed to him, though Percy was three years older. Nico found his sense of humor equal parts endearing and annoying. He decided to concentrate on the </span>
  <em>
    <span>annoying</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then there were the times Percy was deadly serious: looking up at Nico from that chasm in Rome: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>The other side, Nico! Lead them there. Promise me!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Nico had promised. It didn’t seem to matter how much he resented Percy Jackson. Nico would do anything for him. He hated himself for that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…” Reyna’s voice jarred him from his thoughts. “Will Camp Half-Blood wait for August first, or will they attack?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have to hope they wait,” Nico said. “We can’t…</span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> can’t get the statue back any faster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <b>
    <em>Even at this rate, my dad thinks I might die.</em>
  </b>
  <span>” Nico kept that thought private.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wished Hazel was with him. Together they had shadow-traveled the entire crew of the Argo II out of the House of Hades. When they shared their power, Nico felt like anything was possible. The trip to Camp Half-Blood could’ve been done in half the time. His brother, Rei, all of the others together had given him the strength to shadow-travel so many people so easily that he wondered if the entire crew together could’ve helped him make the trip in two jumps - one to the edge of Europe, the other straight to New York. Besides, Hades’s words about one of the crew dying had sent a chill through him. He couldn’t lose Hazel. Not another sister. Not again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no point wondering now. All of the others needed to get to Athens, and he shouldn’t shoot too far in his fantasies if he didn’t want to border too-hopeful or arrogant. If things could be perfect, that’d be great, but he shouldn’t delude himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge looked up from counting the change in his baseball cap. “And you’re sure Clarisse said Mellie was okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Coach. Clarisse is taking good care of her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a relief. I don’t like what Grover said about Gaea whispering to the nymphs and dryads. If the nature spirits turn evil…that’s not going to be pretty.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico had never heard of such a thing happening. Then again, Gaea hadn’t been awake since the dawn of humanity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna took a bite of her pastry. Her chain mail glittered in the afternoon sun. “I wonder about these wolves…is it possible we’ve misunderstood the message? The goddess Lupa has been very quiet. Perhaps she is sending us aid. The wolves could be from her - to </span>
  <em>
    <span>defend</span>
  </em>
  <span> us from Orion and his pack.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hopefulness in her voice was as thin as gauze. Nico decided not to rip through it. “Maybe. But wouldn’t Lupa be busy with the war between the camps? I thought she’d be sending wolves to help your legion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna shook her head. “Wolves are not front-line fighters. I don’t think she would help Octavian. Her wolves might be patrolling Camp Jupiter, defending it in the legion’s absence, but I just don’t know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A wolf pack will only fight when they outnumber and/or out-match their opponents,” Ane said. “They don’t fight in armies  - especially armies that are not made up of their people. Or…wolf-people…or I guess just their allies in general…you know what I mean. They </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> patrol the area around their homes though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna crossed her legs at the ankles, and the iron tips of her combat boots glinted. Nico made a mental note not to get into any kicking contests with Roman legionnaires.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s something else,” she said. “I haven’t had any luck contacting my sister, Hylla. It makes me uneasy that both the wolves </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Amazons have gone silent. If something has happened on the West Coast…I fear the only hope for either camp lies with us. We </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> return the statue soon. That means the greatest burden is on you, son of Hades.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico tried to swallow his bile. He wasn’t mad at Reyna. He kind of liked Reyna. But so often he’d been called on to do the impossible. Normally, as soon as he accomplished it, he was forgotten. He remembered how nice the kids at Camp Half-Blood had been to him after the war with Kronos. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Great job, Nico! Thanks for bringing the armies of the Underworld to save us!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Everybody smiled. They all invited him to sit at their table.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After about a week, his welcome wore thin. Campers would jump when he walked up behind them. He would emerge from the shadows at the campfire, startle somebody, and see the discomfort in their eyes: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Are you still here? Why are you here?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ It didn’t help that immediately after the war with Kronos, Annabeth and Percy had started dating…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico set down his fartura. Suddenly it didn’t taste so good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He recalled his talk with Annabeth at Epirus, just before he’d left with the Athena Parthenos. She’d pulled him aside and said, “Hey, I have to talk to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Panic had seized him. ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>She knows.</em>
  </b>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want to thank you,” she continued. “Bob…the Titan…he only helped us in Tartarus because you were kind to him. You told him we were worth saving. That’s the only reason we’re alive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She said ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ so easily, as if she and Percy were interchangeable, inseparable. Nico had once read a story from Plato, who claimed that in the ancient times, all humans had been a combination of male and female. Each person had two heads, four arms, four legs. Supposedly, these combo-humans had been so powerful they made the gods uneasy, so Zeus split them in half - man and woman. Ever since, humans had felt incomplete. They spent their lives searching for their other halves. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>And where does that leave me?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Nico wondered. It wasn’t his favorite story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wanted to hate Annabeth, but he just couldn’t. She’d gone out of her way to thank him at Epirus. She was genuine and sincere. She never overlooked him or avoided him like most people did. Why couldn’t she be a horrible person? That would’ve made it easier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wind god Favonius had warned him in Croatia: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>If you let your anger rule you…well, your fate will be even sadder than mine.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ But how could his fate be anything </span>
  <em>
    <span>but</span>
  </em>
  <span> sad? Even if he lived through his quest, he would have to leave both camps forever. That was the only way he would find peace. He wished there was another option - a choice that didn’t hurt like the waters of the Phlegethon - but he couldn’t see one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane had asked him on their way through Évora: “Nico, what do you plan to do after this quest?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Assuming we survive, you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “We will. We have to believe that. I spent an eternity down in Tartarus, and all I could do was hope that I’d one day make it to the Overworld. It’s beautiful here, more beautiful than memories from the Remnants could possibly quantify. I waited an eternity to be free, and all that time, I had to keep believing I would be granted a miracle. Now, here I am. But after this quest…I’m really not sure where I can go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t plan to go with your big sister?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head. “I am not Big Sister. I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be her, I want to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Besides, I’m still a monster from Tartarus. I don’t belong in the camps of demigods who fight monsters for a living. But…honestly? I don’t know where I’d go. Where are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> going after this? Back to the camps?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico’s dark gaze had been pensive. “No. I can’t. I don’t belong in either camp. It’s the curse of being a son of Hades. No one will accept me, that’s just how it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane sighed. Her poodle blinked, turning its head back and forth between the two of them. It’s black eyes blinked with its normal blank face. It seemed confused. “I suppose that means you and I are in the same boat. Touched by the Underworld, we cannot belong with the people of the Overworld.” She smiled up at Nico gently. “Perhaps that means we should stay together. In a world that cannot accept us, I wish to take any company I can get. If you would accept me as a travel companion, I would be honored to have someone who is not myself to talk to.” She bowed her head. Her poodle nearly fell off her shoulder. It clung to her hair and then repositioned itself when she righted herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico let out a small, sad sigh. “I suppose that wouldn’t be a bad plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right! And we can…do whatever it is you do in the Overworld. You’re going to have to teach me a bit about what peace is like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s basically the same as now, just with less giant statues to escort across the globe and a </span>
  <em>
    <span>few</span>
  </em>
  <span> less murderous monsters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah. Something to look forward to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane found it would be appropriate to travel with the son of Hades. With Nico so isolated from demigods and so strongly connected to the Underworld, he would probably be the only real demigod to accept her, knowing who and what she was. Living with herself was bad enough when she was in Tartarus, but having someone separate to talk to really </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> relieve her of a little stress sometimes. She liked Nico. He could be her brother! She’d never had a brother before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico, how can we help you?” Reyna asked in the present. Reyna was studying him, probably trying to read his thoughts. She glanced down at his hands, and Nico realized he was twisting his silver skull ring - the last gift Bianca had given him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “You’ve already let me rest as much as possible. That’s important. Perhaps you can lend me your strength again, along with Ane. This next jump will be the longest. I’ll have to muster enough energy to get us across the Atlantic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll succeed,” Reyna promised. “Once we’re back in the U.S., we should encounter fewer monsters. I might even be able to get help from retired legionnaires along the eastern seaboard. They are obliged to aid any Roman demigod who calls on them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge grunted. “If Octavian hasn’t already won them over. In which case, you might find yourself arrested for treason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coach,” Reyna scolded, “not helping.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it does come to that, we’ll have to just continue on our own,” Ane said. “If we can combine our powers and give Nico all the energy we can manage into each jump, we might be able to make it within the next jump or two. Fingers crossed.” She held up her hand, index and middle finger crossed along with her pinky and ring finger. Her poodle held up its hands, before realizing that it only had stuffed paws with no fingers. It crossed its arms instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Personally, I wish we could stay in Évora longer,” Hedge volunteered. “Good food, good money, and so far no sign of these figurative </span>
  <em>
    <span>wolves</span>
  </em>
  <span>-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s dogs sprang to their feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A roar of warning rang out across the area, and Ane stood. “That’s 874-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the distance, howls pierced the air. Before Nico could stand, wolves appeared from every direction - huge black beasts leaping from the roofs, surrounding their encampment. The largest of them padded forward. The alpha wolf stood on his haunches and began to change. His forelegs grew into arms, his snout shrank into a pointy nose, his gray fur morphed into a cloak of woven animal pelts. He became a tall, wiry man with a haggard face and glowing red eyes; a crown of finger bones circled his greasy black hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, little satyr…” The man grinned, revealing pointed fangs. “Your wish is granted! You will stay in Évora forever, because sadly for you, my figurative wolves are </span>
  <em>
    <span>literal</span>
  </em>
  <span> wolves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seriously?” Ane sighed. “That was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrible</span>
  </em>
  <span> punch line. Were you trying to make a play on words there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man frowned at her. “Well, they can’t all be winners.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head. “I didn’t doubt your wolves for a second, I’ll have you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not Orion,” Nico blurted. A stupid comment, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man before them clearly was not a hunter giant. He wasn’t tall enough, he didn’t have dragon legs, he didn’t carry a bow or quiver, and he didn’t have the headlamp eyes Reyna had described from her dream.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The gray man laughed. “Indeed not. Orion has merely employed me to assist him in his hunt. I am-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lycaon,” Reyna interrupted. “The first werewolf.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man gave her a mock bow. “Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, praetor of Rome. One of Lupa’s whelps! I’m pleased you recognize me. No doubt, I am the stuff of your nightmares.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The stuff of my indigestion, perhaps.” From her belt pouch, Reyna produced a foldable camping knife. She flicked it open and the wolves snarled, backing away. “I never travel without a silver weapon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon bared his teeth. “Would you keep a dozen wolves and their king at bay with a pocketknife? I heard you were brave, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>filia Romana</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ I did not realize you were foolhardy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s dogs crouched, ready to spring. The coach gripped his baseball bat, though for once he didn’t look too anxious to swing. Nico reached for the hilt of his sword.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t bother,” Coach Hedge muttered. “These guys are only hurt by silver or fire. I remember them from Pikes Peak. They’re annoying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I remember you, Gleeson Hedge.” The werewolf’s eyes glowed lava red. “My pack will be delighted to have goat meat for dinner.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge snorted. “Bring it on, mangy boy. The Hunters of Artemis are on their way right now, just like last time! That’s the temple of </span>
  <em>
    <span>Diana</span>
  </em>
  <span> over there, you idiot. You’re on their home turf!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Again the wolves snarled and widened their circle. Some glanced nervously towards the rooftops.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon only glared at the coach. “A nice try, but I’m afraid that temple has been misnamed. I passed through here during Roman times. It was actually dedicated to the Emperor Augustus. Typical demigod vanity. Regardless, I’ve been much more careful since our last encounter. If the Hunters were anywhere close by, I would know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico glanced towards Ane. She nodded. 517, burnt to death in a bonfire. 670, melted silver poured on her to burn her to death. She had nearly the whole periodic table under her belt. She went through a phase - and by that, she meant the Wards had tested her against as many elements as they could manage at one point or another. He nodded back at her. There had been thousands of skeletons in the Chapel of Bones. He recalled what Hades had said about this public square, where the Inquisition had burned hundreds of people alive. This was an ancient city. How many dead lay in the ground beneath their feet?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Surrounded and outnumbered. The scepter of Diocletian was gone. The Athena Parthenos was thirty feet above them at the top of the temple, and even if they could reach it, they couldn’t shadow-travel until they actually had </span>
  <em>
    <span>shadows</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The sun wouldn’t set for hours. Luckily Ane and Nico had talked about a method that could help them shadow-travel in an emergency using their powers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico hardly felt brave, but he stepped forward. “So you’ve got us. What are you waiting for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon studied him like a new type of meat in a butcher’s display case. “Nico di Angelo…son of Hades. I’ve heard of you. I’m sorry I can’t kill you promptly, but I promised my employer Orion that I would detain you until he arrives. No worries. He should be here in a few moments. Once he’s done with you, I shall spill your blood and mark this place as my territory for ages to come!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico grit his teeth. “Demigod blood. The blood of Olympus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course! Spilled upon the ground, especially </span>
  <em>
    <span>sacred</span>
  </em>
  <span> ground, demigod blood has many uses. With the proper incantations, it can awaken monsters or even gods. It can cause new life to spring up or make a place barren for generations.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane rolled her eyes. “Don’t remind me. I’ve been juiced like a tomato no less than five times in order to fortify Ward bases and kick some monsters/deities in the face.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon glanced down at her with disapproval, like a stray cockroach that had infiltrated his meat selection. “Ah, No. 1, the escaped monster from Tartarus. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You</span>
  </em>
  <span> are not needed alive; your blood is useless as you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! I take offense to that! My blood is perfectly healthy, I’ll have you know. You don’t wanna </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> what </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> blood can do when it spills.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” her poodle agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon sighed. “Alas, </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> blood will not wake Gaea herself. That honor is reserved for your friends aboard the Argo II. But fear not. Your death will be almost as painful as theirs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The grass started dying around Nico’s feet; the marigold beds withered. Barren ground, sacred ground. Looks like Lycaon didn’t have anything to give them, meaning it was time to enact their plan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coach, can you climb?” Nico asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge scoffed. “I’m half </span>
  <em>
    <span>goat</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Of course I can climb!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get up to the statue and secure the rigging. Make a rope ladder and drop it down for us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, but the pack of wolves-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reyna, you and your dogs will help me cover our retreat,” Ane said. “Nico and I will prepare the escape.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The praetor nodded grimly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon howled with laughter. “Escape to where, children of the Underworld? There is no escape. You cannot kill us!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, honey, you underestimate my stubbornness,” Ane smiled. “Tell you what, I’ll let you choose how you die. Covered in melted silver or burnt alive!” She held up her two small fists, one lighting ablaze with a red-hot flame and the other being covered in a layer of liquid silver. “Come and die!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wolf pack snarled and took a few wary steps back. Even Lycaon assumed an instinctive defensive stance. “Foolish child. You are far from the creature you were in Tartarus. Your arrogance will be your undoing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll see whose arrogance gets us today, ya pudgy pooch.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He frowned. “And you berate </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> for my verbal wit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane rolled her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Truthfully, Lycaon was right. In Tartarus, Ane was able to summon her whole army of Remnants all at once and revive them at her leisure. She knew that in the Overworld, it would likely be harder or impossible for her to revive her Remnants instantly if they died, and perhaps she couldn’t sustain as many of them at once, but she hadn’t expected to be debilitated to the point that she could barely summon two or three at a time - physically, anyway. She could still summon the powers remotely on herself, but she only had one Remnant active at the moment and she knew that she couldn’t push two more free.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico!” Ane shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He spread his hands and the ground erupted. Even Ane hadn’t expected it to work so well. He had pulled fragments from the earth before - he’d animated rat skeletons and unearthed the odd human skull. Nothing prepared them for the wall of bones that burst skyward - hundreds of femurs, ribs, and fibulas entangling the wolves, forming a spiky briar of human remains.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Most of the wolves were hopelessly trapped. Some writhed and gnashed their teeth, trying to free themselves from their haphazard cages. Lycaon himself was immobilized in a cocoon of rib bones, but that didn’t stop him from screaming curses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You worthless child!” he roared. “I will rip the flesh from your limbs!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cheery,” Ane muttered. “Coach, go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The satyr sprinted towards the temple. He made the top of the podium in a single leap and scrambled up the left pillar. Ane sent her familiar off, and the poodle jumped from her shoulder and sprinted over to Nico. It climbed up to his shoulder in seconds, and Nico didn’t question it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Four wolves broke free from the thicket of bones. Reyna threw her knife and impaled one in the neck while her dogs pounced on another. Aurum’s fangs and claws slipped harmlessly off the wolf’s hide, but Argentum brought the beast down. Argentum’s head was still bent sideways from the fight in Pompeii. His left ruby eye was still missing, but he managed to sink his fangs into the wolf’s scruff. The wolf dissolved into a puddle of shadow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane dived towards the first wolf and grabbed it with her silver hand, causing a ripple effect as the wolf was encased in burning hot liquid metal. She held her other hand out and shot a wave of flames at the final wolf that went after Reyna, hitting it in midair and burning it to a crisp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna drew her sword and scooped a handful of silver coins from Hedge’s baseball cap. She grabbed duct tape from the coach’s supply bag and began taping coins around her blade while Ane covered her. The girl was nothing if not inventive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go!” Reyna told Nico. “We’ll cover you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wolves struggled, causing the bone thicket to crack and crumble. Lycaon freed his right arm and began smashing through his prison of rib cages.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will flay you alive!” he promised. “I will add your pelt to my cloak!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hush!” Ane shouted. She threw out her flame hand and shot it straight at Lycaon. The werewolf was more resilient than his minions, but he still screamed and struggled further from the heat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane mentally trembled, realizing that the flames weren’t enough to kill Lycaon outright. She couldn’t get close physically to touch him with her metal hand without risking disturbing Nico’s bone trap, but she had a feeling that Lycaon would be free for close-quarters combat soon enough. The rest of the wolves howled at Lycaon’s pain and more burst free to charge at Ane, who melted a few more with her silver hand and kept them at bay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico ran, pausing just long enough to grab Reyna’s silver pocket knife from the ground. He wasn’t a mountain goat, but he found a set of stairs at the back of the temple and raced to the top. He reached the base of the columns and squinted up at Coach Hedge, who was precariously perched at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, unraveling ropes and knotting a ladder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hurry!” Nico yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, really?” the coach called down. “I thought we had tons of time!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last thing Nico needed was satyr sarcasm. In the square, more wolves broke free of their bone restraints. Reyna swatted them aside with her modified duct-tape-coin-sword, but a handful of change wasn’t going to hold back a pack of werewolves for long. Aurum snarled and snapped in frustration, unable to hurt the enemy. Argentum did his best, sinking his claws into the throat of another wolf, but the silver dog was already damaged. Soon he’d be hopelessly outnumbered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon freed both his arms. He started pulling his legs from their rib cage restraints. There were only a few seconds until he would be loose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A roar rang out across the ruins. Ane smiled. “874!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A teenage Remnant lumbered out into the open. Her eyes were whited out, she had rows of sharp teeth like the wolves around her, and she was covered in blood, shadows, and ichor. Her nails were sharp claws, her body was pulsing with her veins glowing across her body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the heck is that?” Reyna blurted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>told</span>
  </em>
  <span> you I sent 874 to look out for wolves,” Ane explained. “Looks like she’s had a few casualties on her way back here. Ambushed, weren’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>874 roared with an inhuman growl like a bear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was injected with the equivalent of an experimental werewolf super-serum; I figured there’d be no better Remnant to ward off a pack of wolves. Soooooo…good luck with that! Reyna, run!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s hands returned to normal and she gave a curt wave before she and Reyna retreated at full speed. The wolves attempted to pursue them, but 874 zipped in their path with unexpected speed and dived for the wolves. She ripped one apart with her claws and then dived for another and sank her sharp teeth into its neck. She quickly had two puddles of shadows dripping from her and disappearing. The wolves tried taking a wide girth to get around her, but she moved with blurring speed to match theirs and took any forward movement as a sign to strike. The wolves were held at bay, but as Lycaon got free, even Ane worried that he’d be a match for 874. The Remnant wasn’t going to last forever, as much as she hated to admit it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane, grab on!” Reyna shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane jumped and dived for Reyna mid-sprint, wrapping her arms around Reyna’s shoulders. In mid-stride, she flicked her sword, which elongated into a javelin, then used it to launch herself up like a pole-vaulter. She landed next to Nico, letting Ane drop beside her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the plan?” she asked, not even out of breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Show-off,” he grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A knotted rope fell from above. “Climb, ya silly non-goats!” Hedge yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go,” Nico told Reyna. “Once you’re up there, hang on tight to the rope.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her javelin shrunk back into a sword. Reyna sheathed it and began to climb, scaling the column despite her armor and her supplies. Down in the plaza, Aurum and Argentum were nowhere to be seen. Either they’d retreated or they’d been destroyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should I-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Change of plans,” Nico announced. Ane knew that summoning that wall of bones had drained Nico of most of the strength that he’d gotten from his restful stay. It would take all his remaining energy to shadow-travel. “I’m going to need all the strength you can get me for this jump. We’re gonna use the shadows from the wolves - one in particular.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held up the silver pocket knife from Reyna. It was possibly the stupidest, craziest idea he’d had since he thought: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey, I’ll get Percy to swim in the River Styx! He’ll love me for that!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane stared at Nico. She blinked, but then steeled her expression. “Right. When I say ‘Eyes!’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon broke free of his bone cage with a triumphant howl. “You will suffer, son of Hades!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What else is new?” he muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane held her hand out and took control of 874. She swiped at the remaining wolf pack half-heartedly, letting them slowly but surely overwhelm 874, but she made sure to take down the pack slowly but surely. She let the final wolf strike at 874 and then rescinded the Remnant. It disappeared into a puddle of black ichor that melted into the ground and returned to Ane, but in the process, the black ichor burnt at the final wolf and transformed it into a puddle of shadows as well. Ane was careful to make it look like the Remnant had been genuinely defeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good enough?” Ane asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perfect.” Nico palmed the pocket knife. “Come and get me, you mutt! Or do you have to </span>
  <em>
    <span>stay</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a good dog until your master shows up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane climbed a short distance up the rope but stayed low enough to be in range to help Nico if necessary. Her poodle clung to the son of Hades with a blank stare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon sprang through the air, his claws extended, his fangs bared. Nico wrapped his free hand around the rope and concentrated, a beat of sweat trickling down his neck. Lycaon swiped his claw and Nico twisted beside the rope to dodge, keeping his free hand firmly gripping the rope with all his might.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon’s mouth turned up into a smile and he lunged again, this time not aiming for Nico but Ane high on the rope. She squeaked and pulled herself up, jumping a good ten feet to avoid Lycaon who sliced straight through the rope. Nico was forced to sidestep and drop the remains of the rope. It was too high for Nico to reach, even if he jumped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico!” Reyna cried from above.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hang onto the rope!” Ane shouted. “Brace yourselves! Eyes!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico threw his arm over his eyes. Lycaon was diving for him, but he trusted Ane. She closed her eyes and concentrated before snapping them open and releasing a wave of pure light hot and bright as the sun, aimed straight at Lycaon. The werewolf was thrown back and blinded with a howl, and Nico dived for the sound with the silver knife, plunging it straight into Lycaon’s chest. All around the temple, the remaining wolves that had retreated from the fight howled as one. The wolf king sank his claws blindly into Nico’s arms. His fangs stopped less than an inch from Nico’s face. The light from Ane’s attack faded, and Nico ignored his own pain and jabbed the pocketknife to the hold between Lycaon’s ribs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be useful, dog,” he snarled. “Back to the shadows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lycaon’s eyes rolled up in his head. He dissolved into a pool of inky darkness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico!” Reyna shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on!” Ane repeated. “Nico, do it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Ane’s poodle hummed with a black aura and started pouring energy into Nico.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several things happened at once. The outraged pack of wolves surged forward. From a nearby rooftop, a booming voice yelled, “STOP THEM!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They heard the unmistakable sound of a large bow being drawn taut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico melted into the pool of Lycaon’s shadow, taking Ane’s familiar with him. Ane was sucked into the shadows, connected to her familiar, and with her, she took the Athena Parthenos and their friends. They slipped into the cold ether with no idea where they would emerge.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Tartarus</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I suppose that settles </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Metis brushed his hands together, despite the fact that he hadn’t even gotten his hands involved in the fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos laid sprawled in the grass, grumbling about the unfairness of it all. Tartarus was almost amused by the sight. For all the humiliation </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> had to go through under Khaos, he was happy to know that he was no longer the only punching bag.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos had insulted Metis with a string of frustrated insults about how Kronos was a Titan from a generation far beyond Metis’s era, how dare he take the name of his Titan mother, and long-story-short, Metis had accepted a challenge and utterly wrecked Kronos all while keeping his hands clasped firmly behind his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was almost surreal to even Tartarus how Metis easily predicted Kronos’s moves. Kronos’s deadly sickle was swung with ease, and yet Metis calmly contorted his body to dodge, even letting Kronos’s swings come staggeringly close without flinching. Metis was also fast. Kronos was capable of stopping time, but Metis had accounted for that. He’d kicked a stone, moved around Kronos and kicked up a wave of dirt, and then circled around once again to charge in head-first. Kronos had frozen time to dodge, but he’d ended up moving right into the small stone Metis had kicked, hitting him right in the small of his back and startling him so much that he fell out of his time-frozen state and was put in prime position for the dirt Metis had kicked to be thrown right into his eyes. Metis had planted a foot, rotated his body, and kicked the Titan, all in one swift motion, sending his sickle flying up while Kronos was chucked into the grass. Metis caught the sickle without looking and had turned it upside down to dig it into the ground at his side before brushing his hands together with an air of finality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do hope this won’t continue to be a problem, Kronos. After all, if we’re going to be working together, I want us to get along.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos let out a string of mumbled curses that might’ve turned a normal mortal to dust if they heard it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why must I be relegated to the frontlines of a war I want nothing to do with?” he snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You led a war on Mount Olympus quite recently, did you not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And it </span>
  <em>
    <span>failed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>care</span>
  </em>
  <span> about whatever Gaea has planned. If she takes down those arrogant children, then great. If not, I don’t care. Don’t expect me to </span>
  <em>
    <span>defend</span>
  </em>
  <span> those foolish demigods, either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were once a good father, Kronos,” Metis muttered. “I have hope for you yet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, he spoke. “What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You had hope that you would be better than your father, you found joy at marrying Rhea and having your first daughter Hestia. Your mental clarity was sabotaged, resulting in your downfall. I cannot give you conquest, but what I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> give you is peace. Rhea is still out there, looking after her children, and she did her best to remain out of the Second Titanomachy because she would not fight you, and she could not tolerate seeing your return as such a cruel man. Because she still believed in the person she hoped you would be when she married you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos did not look like a cruel man at the moment. He looked broken. And that was understandable. When he had been dragged to Tartarus, the Titan had been subjected to its horrors, but the madness seemed to have brought him clarity. Tartarus did wonder - perhaps Chaos had done something, perhaps Chaos had planned for this even before he had merged with Order into Khaos.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What have you planned for this…battle, of yours?” Kronos asked. He was hesitant to call this an uprising.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I plan to fix this world and eliminate the cruelty that the many generations of rulers have wrought.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you intend to take the throne yourself, son of Zeus?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perhaps. Would that inspire jealousy in your heart?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe, long ago, Kronos would have been very jealous. He would have been angry, he would have plotted his revenge or done what it took to take the crown for himself before Metis could get the chance. But right now, he was tired. The thought of ruling sounded exhausting, but more than that, it sounded lonely. When he had taken the throne away from Ouranos, his Titan brothers had left him - they had gotten married and made their own lives away from him, but more than that, they feared him. He had married Rhea in the hopes of being a better man, to perhaps make him more affable so that his siblings would visit him more - he had married her in spite of his vow to remain a bachelor to prevent his children from usurping his throne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But in the end, he had lost his senses to the cruelty that had been born in his heart all his life. That was his fate, it seemed. The moment he’d learned his daughter was not a Titan but a new creature that could one day grow stronger than him, he had lost the battle between loving Rhea and loving his throne. After his defeat, he had lived trapped in a state of misery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time he’d risen again, he had found joy in the conflict and the manipulation of the demigods and even the gods themselves. It had been a game to amuse him, and it had. But… perhaps it was Luke Castellan influencing him while he had possessed the demigod’s body. Kronos was tired of this battle. What did ruling really mean anymore?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s it to you?” he finally murmured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nothing much. But I find conquest a messy art. I will be handling this delicate matter in a…sensitive manner. I believe in redemption, Kronos, for those who truly deserve it. You are a ruthless, cruel, utterly evil, greedy, conniving, sadistic, oppressive, treacherous, manipulative, diabolical, arrogant, savage, and cunning little bastard, with an insatiable lust for power and domination. You’re also an extremely possessive, intelligent, untrustworthy, calculating, deceptive, finicky, loathsome, underhanded, surreptitious, duplicitous, egocentric, selfish, meticulous, and excellent planner, and I admire your work. You enjoyed cruelty towards mortals and the power and that came from ruling - but you also grew lonely. You loved, you hated, but what’s most important is you </span>
  <em>
    <span>felt</span>
  </em>
  <span>. And that’s more than enough for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos scoffed. “What’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> supposed to mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could make a good ally if I need someone who can match my intelligence, and your cruel methodology can be quite beautiful if used in the appropriate manner. As I said, I desire for us to become agreeable partners, and though I cannot offer you conquest, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> offer you peace. This world is not built for eternal happiness, not unless you learn what peace means for yourself. In the end, even conquest is just a means of finding happiness and satisfaction. Even if sometimes peace for one person means chaos for many others. Perhaps I can help you find a world where you are satisfied and you will be allowed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>stay</span>
  </em>
  <span> that way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos snorted, but a smile crept across his face. “If you were going to bring me back as a soldier in your little army, you could’ve at </span>
  <em>
    <span>least</span>
  </em>
  <span> given me the invincible body of Luke Castellan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luke Castellan’s battle is over. I freed him from Tartarus, but I have put him in a place of peace. Mortals are often easier to satisfy once they die. He died redeemed, and that’s where his story must end. For you and I, life goes on, no matter how many times we perish.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what exactly is your plan?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Metis smiled and crossed his arms. “Well, Grandfather, it may not satisfy the part of you that desires cruelty, but you’re not being given much choice in the matter. You will work towards my goal whether you like it or not, but I’d like to know that you’re going to work with me willingly. It makes life </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> much easier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos chuckled. He climbed out of his stupor and the overconfident smirk that he hadn’t worn for his entire revival emerged.  “All right then. You’ve interested me in this…utopia, you seem to desire.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Metis held out his hand. “Then do we have an agreement?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos stared at the offered hand skeptically, but he shrugged and reached up to take it. With that, a binding agreement had been forged, but Kronos knew it full-well. “Sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wonderful.” He knocked the back of his hand against Kronos’s shoulder and turned to grab the adamant sickle. He held it out to the Titan “Well, first off, training. We need to get you adjusted to this new body of yours. Even </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> didn’t think I’d take you down </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> quickly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kronos frowned and snatched the giant sickle, slipping it on his back again. “Gee, thanks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t fret. At least you’re going to be easier to train than old Typhon over there.” He motioned over towards the hulking figure that was Typhon in human form. He stared ahead with dead eyes, but staring at them too long started revealing his true nature. If a mortal stared too long, they might be driven insane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t tell if I’m more terrified when he’s in his true form, or like this,” Kronos admitted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah…that wasn’t my idea, by the way. That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> her.” He motioned towards Khaos in their human female form. “She recommended it since you and I aren’t physically very strong when it comes to our current opponents. When you had Luke Castellan’s body with the Curse of Achilles, it gave you a very real advantage. However, its weakness was very real as well, and it’s not worth attempting to use such a glass cannon again. We also want to use both Greek and Roman powers, and the Achilles blessing is Greek alone. You are stronger than I am in terms of physical might, but you’re far from enough to take on multiple gods and/or giants alone. Unfortunately, Tartarus is actually limited by his current position, and so </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> recommended Typhon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, our dear Typhon here is </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> slated to overthrow Zeus,” Khaos pointed out. “Brains and brawn together - I thought this out </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> hard during the olden days, my darlings.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah…I mean he </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> a vital asset - </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> we can manage to…work him out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Typhon opened his mouth as if to speak, but instead, a stream of fire and a noise that resembled a dying harpy combined with a lawnmower being fed a stream of gravel came out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Khaos reached up and pushed their finger under Typhon’s chin to close his mouth. “Yes…well…perhaps speaking isn’t his forte. But he </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> understand commands and learn to use his powers on a small and grand scale alike. He’s not a mindless fool, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> have an intelligent brain in there, believe it or not. It’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for, as they say. I leave the training to you, dear Metis. Our lovely Tar-tar and I have places to be.” Khaos held their forehead. “I do get such </span>
  <em>
    <span>awful</span>
  </em>
  <span> headaches…but it’s the price I have to pay for being here in all my glory!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Khaos waved for Tartarus to follow, and he did. He had no idea what Khaos was thinking, and he - as well as Zytaveon - were growing concerned about the Primordial and the host alike. He should talk to that Hestia child about this. She had been able to control the consciousness of the Primordial deities and insert them into their hosts. Tartarus was disgusted by the fact that he was considering asking a demigod for help, but he had no other ideas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was all for the potential fall of the gods, but his own enslavement wasn’t something he was keen on going along with. If Khaos started losing their wits, Tartarus might have some serious problems on his hands being subservient to them. If this were the cost of being in the Overworld, he wanted to go back to his Pit.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. The Poison of Pylos and What's Next</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Guesses as to what Metis is the god of? Shameless request for comments? Apology for taking so long to get this chapter up because life happened and also I started writing like crazy for my Two of Them story because I’M FINALLY FINISHED WITH IT BABY!(?)</p><p>This got looooong because it was boring and I had to improvise to keep in anything interesting in the chapter. No offense, Piper. The preamble to the next conflict can drag at times. Oh can it drag. I had to get some of my personal plot down and it ended up becoming more exposition than anything else.</p><p>Four months later I swear that I’ve been writing for this story. I’ve literally got the next few chapters written but then I just lost my muse no matter how hard I tried. I got stuck in the land of Two of Them and then the next installment of the story. Which I’m nearly 100 pages in on. And a personal original story which I might be posting on FictionPress and Archive of Our Own soon enough. Which I’m nearly 300 pages in on…</p><p>But in return for my absence I will be triple updating here and putting my full attention to this story! Something interesting’s gonna happen I swear it! I have been writing, it’s just nothing has been interesting in the story. But we’re getting there.</p><p>I’m gonna post the final bits of my Two of Them story and then I’ll put the next section on hiatus. I swear. I’m not at all gonna write the next 100,000 words of it. I’m gonna work on this story right here. I swear.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Hatter</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want the giant?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, darling!” War exclaimed. “The wolves are yours, the hunter is mine!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know Boss’s orders.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course I do, darling, I’m not a fool! But that doesn’t mean I can’t have my fun!” War charged into the fray, launching herself with her lance and attacking the giant hunter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I didn’t want to get involved in </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so I shifted and activated my partial-lion form, charging at the wolves. They were already spread in a wide, cautious arc from the battle with the Remnant, but wolves used their numbers to overwhelm. I knew I’d probably get torn apart if they pounced, but I’d been put into pens with enhanced wolves before - and probably worse. The Wards’ arena was brutal and exhilarating, and it did a good job of making sure we were prepared to fight against the odds in a controlled environment. We wouldn’t die if we lost, but we’d be attacked to near death. There were those who dreaded the arena, but one way or another they’d come to enjoy it; I loved the chance to train, the thrill of facing death and conquering it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I began to whistle a light tune, causing an arena of vines of ivy to grow around us, secreting dark purple fog that turned the area into a hallucinogenic bog.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, you lost your Alpha, didn’t you? Poor babies. This’ll make things easy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I dived at the nearest wolf and moved to bite the scruff of its neck. I had the bite strength and teeth of a wild animal, having been compared to Jaguars, which was more than enough to bite through bones. Already dazed by the fog, the wolves were slower than normal and my wall of vines had circled around us and risen too high for an escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I saw War out of the corner of my eye, cackling as she smacked Orion’s arrows out of the air with her lance and charging at the giant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You dare challenge me, child?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better question is if you think you can challenge </span>
  <em>
    <span>me!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I felt most of the wolves becoming drunk with the toxins after very little fighting, allowing me to access their minds. Getting animals dazed was always less accurate than humans and their higher intelligence, but these wolves seemed to be at least a little more intelligent than the average hound. They were the loyal wolves of Lycaon himself, and without Lycaon they were left without a leader. That gave me an idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm, maybe I can make use of you buddies. You’re weak liabilities, but we might be able to experiment.” I transformed the remaining wolves into snakes and then held my hands out. About a dozen snakes slithered forward, wrapping around my arms and climbing up to hang around my body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Making use of my feral form’s strength, it wasn’t a heavy burden, especially when I could control the type of snake they transformed into and now had full control over their minds. Not to mention the fact that I carried vines all the time, so the weight of snakes wasn’t a problem. I loved snakes. They were my boos. I’ve had way too many snakes in my life, but that doesn’t mean I’m ever going to stop collecting them - wild ones or otherwise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The injured snakes got to heal and rest in my cloak’s pouches specifically lined with some chemicals that made them high as kites to numb and aid in the natural healing process. Sure, I was far more limited than Famine, but I could look after my buddies. A couple of snakes settled in my hair, wrapped around my horns.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! That tickles!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They flicked their tongues at me. The snakes scattered to hide under my cloak, under my shirt and jacket and pants with their many pockets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“War! Let’s go!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I turned and sprinted away. I knew War would cover me from Orion’s firepower and it was just a matter of when she caught up. I seeped poison mist into the grass as I sprinted, sending the signal and just waiting for War.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bye-bye, love! I do hope we’ll be able to dance again!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I expected War to retreat with me, but instead, she reared her lance back and whacked Orion on the head hard enough for me to hear the thud even from my distance and cringe. She’d knocked the giant out cold! I mean, I suppose it was her holding back considering how she hated walking away from a fight without spoils of war and at least a few kills. She enjoyed looting bodies for bones, skin, fur, and pretty much everything that could possibly have a use. She and Forge got along because Forge was the one who could transform the spoils into weapons and upgrades and such. War could loot items like enemy weapons, riches, material objects, but Forge could make use of the more gory aspects of looting a body - which made War addicted to the practice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War slammed the base of her lance down and launched herself up, extending the lance dozens of meters in the air before tipping the tall pole so that she’d aimed for my location. She retracted the lance and rolled from the deadly fall with ease. If she felt any amount of whiplash, she’d enjoy it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine, ready!” I called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From beneath our feet, a large lily emerged around me with the petals closing in for a comfy ride. War refused any flower since that was apparently too wimpy, so she got absorbed by a bundle of weeds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time we emerged, the others were already waiting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t believe you didn’t kill </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them,” War complained. “You </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to keep adopting pets. I’m beginning to think you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>afraid</span>
  </em>
  <span> of bloodshed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I like bloodshed. But I also like snakes.” One of the snakes - I’m gonna name him Tommy - stuck his head out from my hood and flicked his tongue charismatically to make a point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I wonder if </span>
  <em>
    <span>they’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> the reason Pesty doesn’t like you. What’d ya do </span>
  <em>
    <span>then</span>
  </em>
  <span>, hotshot? Choose between your boos or your beau.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>mean?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Is that another Freebee word?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War shrugged in that exaggerated way that showed she was obviously having fun with my ignorance. “Maybe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I frowned at her, but there was no way to annoy her in retaliation, so my rebellion was limited to trying not to react at all. “Well Tilly </span>
  <em>
    <span>likes</span>
  </em>
  <span> snakes, even if she won’t admit it. So do </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> I might add. Or rather - you aren’t afraid of them like Sandy or Seven.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wimps.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least they’re not mean like you and Mirage who crush and abuse them all the time. If you keep killing my snakes, I’m going to keep replacing them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You keep ‘replacing’ them whether we off them or not. We’re just keeping their numbers down so that we aren’t overrun with stupid slithering snakes. If the giants don’t off us, we might end up drowning in a pile of reptiles trying to cuddle us to death.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>like</span>
  </em>
  <span> cuddles.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, don’t tell me you got more snakes!” Seven whined.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should know him better than that,” Pain smirked. “I’m guessing these are the wolves you were sent after?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They lost their master,” I shrugged. “The least I could do was adopt them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or put them out of their misery,” Seven muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake reached out his hand and a snake slithered free down his forearm. Quake was always a quiet one, but he liked snakes. He liked most animals really - I think it was because they talked about as much as he did: less than humans. Granted when an animal </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> piss him off, he could show it no mercy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Most of us </span>
  <em>
    <span>enjoy</span>
  </em>
  <span> the company of Hatter’s little guests,” Lust said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She allowed a few snakes to wrap around her arm as she held them up like a snake whisperer. If there was one way to describe Lust, it was that creepy hippie lady in a drug den covered in tattoos who was enigmatic enough to be scary but also mellow enough that you didn’t see her as a threat. A viper was perhaps accurate enough to describe her - but only half the time. The other half was as sadistic and mad as Mirage and War put together, which was saying something. She didn’t use a physical weapon, which made her all the more dangerous since her powers were so strong that she never had to resort to physical violence to win.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We don’t mind the critters,” Forge agreed. “So long as they don’t get in my way. These are the only spoils you returned with?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately,” War sighed. “Boss, we’re not needed for the next mission, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not unless you want to be.” Boss’s hair was slicked back like she’d just come back from a wash. “I need fighters who don’t rely on technique or plans for this next round. Emotional fighters more than you or Mirage’s berserk styles. That’s why I’m sending Hatter and Lust. They deal with the mental aspect of manipulation rather than the physical, although your Berserker state could qualify if you use it properly. There </span>
  <em>
    <span>may</span>
  </em>
  <span> be spoils.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With Hatter going? Unlikely. I’ll pass. Can Forge and I be on our way?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss nodded. “You’re dismissed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll bring you spoils if I find them,” Lust promised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, dog.” War clicked her tongue and bid Forge to follow her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where are the others?” Boss demanded. “I announced a check-in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think Iota is trying to wake up Sandy,” Pain announced. “Pestilence is with Mirage. I think they’re annoying her about a girl they found on their last mission.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll go get Tilly!” I announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll retrieve Little Miss Lightning and Sandy,” Lust said. She took with her one of the snakes, who seemed content with her. Lust made it hard to hate her when she didn’t want you to, considering her power over the Kharities and all that happy stuff that was born from Nyx or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I hurried over to Tilly’s tent, hearing Mirage’s voice even before I knocked on the metal frame. I pushed through the tent flap and then walked to the second room where Tilly’s sleeping quarters were. Mirage was floating on a bed of pillows while Pestilence lounged back on her mattress with the equivalent of a perpetual eye-roll on her face. Ah, how charming she looked when she was silently judging people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yo guys. Boss wants you for a check-in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tilly jumped up. Her golden hair was slipping free from her ponytail, the shorter strands hanging free to cup her face. “Shit! Your stupid rambling made us late, you checkerboard fart!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage didn’t look too concerned about Boss’s wrath or even at Tilly’s insulting nickname, and instead seemed more offended at Tilly’s particular phrasing. “A woman who can contain the will of Tartarus? That’s not a stupid story, my dear. It’s a scoop. She </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a beaut. I’d so love to dissect her soul and observe her control over the Mist.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh, you’re as bad as Hatter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I take offense to that,” I announced. “Mirage is </span>
  <em>
    <span>clearly</span>
  </em>
  <span> worse than I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I agree,” Mirage crooned. “I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>far</span>
  </em>
  <span> worse, little mouse.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Blech, go bother Famine with your nonsense. At least she has the constitution to tolerate you. I’m gonna check in with Boss.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pushed past me and my snakes popped out to ask what that was about and comment on the sad situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As much as she complains, I haven’t actually seen Famine in a while,” Mirage said, swiping their pale fingers beneath their chin thoughtfully. “She’s learned to create plants that hide from my Mist and even consume it. She was helping your transportation on your last mission, yes? And I believe she’s on the next mission as well. You should send the message to get her out here. She’s been acting odd recently. Well, odder than she normally is. In a boring way, I mean. She’s been doing more meditating than Quake. Go check on her, will you? I’m gonna go check-in with Boss and then go bother War and Forge.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They disappeared into a puff of smoke. I coughed and tried to wave away the smog. It was annoying knowing that there wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> any smell of smoke, but Mirage’s illusions couldn’t be outsmarted even knowing that Mirage was using the Mist to trick you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I headed out of Tilly’s tent and summoned some grapevines to try and contact Famine. I headed over to her tent and carefully made my way in. Her ‘tent’ wasn’t made out of the regular cloth and metal frame - it was entirely made of greenery, and considering that her power could turn all of the plants against you at any moment, it was kinda claustrophobic to walk into her territory, despite the fact that her residence was one of the largest. She, Forge, Quake, and Mirage were capable of making their own homes at their leisure - with War getting help from Forge and Lust getting Mirage to make her what she wanted. Everyone else just accepted regular tents, even if they had their personal styles. I always hated going into the big four’s tents or Boss’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine? Hellll</span>
  <em>
    <span>ooooo</span>
  </em>
  <span>ooooo~!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The grass parted and made a path for me to head into another room. Some of my snakes hissed lightly about not liking this. I followed the grass path and found Famine meditating as Mirage had said. In all honesty, Famine was </span>
  <em>
    <span>as</span>
  </em>
  <span> level-headed if not </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> than Quake; she didn’t need help meditating, Quake just meditated more often because he needed it for his own sanity or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fam? Boss wants us on the next mission. Gotta check-in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right.” She raised a hand to her face and rubbed her eyes like she had just gotten up in the morning. Famine wasn’t really a morning person, but she wasn’t someone I’d ever seen be tired. Though I </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> believe that she could sleep standing up, so sleeping while meditating wasn’t too big a stretch. “Who is assigned?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me and Lust. We just need you for transportation. Boss said something about more emotional fighters than tactical fighters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emotional, you say?” She glanced up at me for a moment before returning her eyes to the floor of plants in front of her. “I’ll consult Boss to personally escort you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She rose to her feet. Unlike Tilly, her hair maintained perfect form in the long white braid down her back. Even her loose strands remained slicked back and in place. Somehow she had light blue highlight strands too? Either way, it was a stark contrast to her dark-brown skin covered in weird markings and stuff that I only vaguely could guess what they meant. I was honestly afraid that if I stared at them too long, I’d blow up or something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wish to accompany you. I do so enjoy traveling as opposed to being cooped up for too long.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…cool. As long as Boss approves it, I don’t really care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine urged me to follow her as we went back to Boss and the others. “Which reminds me; I’m curious as to when we will recruit Death and Ventus. I remember Ventus from long ago, a vague memory that has slowly resurfaced as of late. He was a small one. I feel a terrible presence from him now - the presence of the Earth Mother’s corruption of death itself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Charming.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hss…</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Tommy agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You tamed a new brood of companions,” Famine noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup. This one’s Tommy. And I think I’ll call this one Martha, and this one Jonas. They all used to be wolves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can see that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go back to sleep, Sandy,” Boss sighed up ahead. Sandy was being held up by Iota as he was basically asleep on his feet - a skill Sandy had refined over the years, though he wasn’t as good at hiding it as some of our other companions were (Famine included). “I didn’t need you to physically come here; Astral-Projection would have sufficed. I need you guarding over the dreamscape and keeping us stable. Look after current events as you were.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandy was taken away by Iota back to his comfy tent. I was honestly jealous of the kid sometimes. Sleeping in such luxury all the time without all the negative effects of sleeping too much must’ve been heavenly. Sandy also had a lower energy level or whatever the fancy medical name for it was (hypo-whatever-that-g-word-for-sugar-was), which basically translated to always needing to sleep, being sleepy, and sometimes even needed some medical injections to stay stable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boss. May I speak with you?” Famine announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two of them actually walked off for their conversation - I couldn’t understand why, other than Famine felt she was asking something private to Boss, which was suspicious, but nothing I could interfere with - leaving me with Lust, Pain, and Seven, who appeared to be conversing like women do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A stuffed animal?” Seven repeated. “I mean, it’s not really </span>
  <em>
    <span>odd</span>
  </em>
  <span> for Sandy. He’s got more stuffing and comfy lodgings than any of us. I’m slightly jealous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, it made him quite elated,” Lust explained. “The joys of loving cute stuffed animals is truly warming, no?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>incapable</span>
  </em>
  <span> of feeling sorrow, aren’t you?” Pain deadpanned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In the same way you feel bliss from the sting of cuts, dear, I feel a rush from any type of emotion - negative or otherwise. It is sorrow when I feel…</span>
  <em>
    <span>content</span>
  </em>
  <span> from even the deepest woes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Seven looked unamused. “Having control over your own emotions sounds great for avoiding the feelings of existential dread of your own place in the universe. The rest of us just have to deal with that naturally.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust sighed. She still had a snake wrapped around her neck. The small snakes were some of my favorites, and though most of my snakes needed some time to learn how to be snakes when I wasn’t around to guide them, Lust had a way of connecting with anything and everything positively - or at least to her benefit anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lighten up, my dear. Are we not enjoying ourselves? This team brings us all joy, joys we could have never had in the past. I was born of grace, beauty, happiness, and splendor. Hatter and I throw brilliant celebrations. But even I have struggled. There are those who I cannot make happy.” She frowned. Lust’s scowl was scary simply because she always looked content and almost ethereal at all times. “Those are the people that I want to punch in the face.” She relaxed again. “But though anger is uncomfortable, it still empowers me. Everyone has things they want and love - and things they hate beyond imagining. And it’s beautiful, is it not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain laughed. “Ha! You’re a roller coaster, girl. Probably the only reason I tolerate you is simply the show you put on when you get upset.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust’s coy smile returned. “Well, no one can truly hate me, Pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get annoyed by your constant nagging for me to find love. My love is with my blood.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, well that </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> love, at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hatter, Lust! Time to go.” Boss and Famine returned to us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bye ladies,” Lust dismissed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine will be joining you for a…new development,” Boss explained. “She will handle her job, you will focus on yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quake, I need you for a briefing as well.” He stood silently in the background.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine by me,” Lust said. “Now are you going to inform us of what we should </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> about this little mission you’ve lined up for us? Hatter and War hardly had fun with those dumb wolves, so I expect more entertainment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss smiled. “You won’t be disappointed.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was hard to believe how hard it was to find deadly poison.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All morning, me, Frank, and Piper had scoured the port of Pylos. Frank invited Piper and I to come with him, thinking our charmspeak and calming diplomatic powers might be useful if we ran into his shape-shifting relatives. As it turned out, our weapons were more in demand. So far, we’d slain a Laistrygonian ogre in the bakery, battled a giant warthog in the public square, and defeated a flock of Stymphalian birds with some well-aimed vegetables from Piper’s cornucopia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper was glad for the work. It kept her from dwelling on her conversation with her mother the night before - that bleak glimpse of the future Aphrodite had made us promise not to share…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Piper’s biggest challenge in Pylos was the ads plastered all over town for her dad’s new movie. The posters were in Greek, but we could easily read what they said: ‘</span>
  <b>TRISTAN MCLEAN IS JAKE STEEL: </b>
  <b>
    <em>SIGNED IN BLOOD.</em>
  </b>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gods, what a horrible title. She wished her father had never taken on the Jake Steel franchise, but it had become one of his most popular roles. There he was on the poster, his shirt ripped open to reveal perfect abs (“Gross, Dad!” she’d muttered), an AK-47 in each hand, a rakish smile on his chiseled face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Halfway across the world, in the smallest, most out-of-the-way town imaginable, there was her dad. It made Piper feel sad, disoriented, homesick, and annoyed all at once. Life went on. So did Hollywood. While her dad pretended to save the world, Piper and her friends actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> to. In eight more days, unless Piper could pull off the plan Aphrodite had explained…well, there wouldn’t be any more movies or theaters - or people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Around one in the afternoon, we finally put our charmspeak to work. We spoke with an Ancient Greek ghost in a Laundromat (on a one-to-ten scale for weird conversations, definitely an eleven) and got directions to an ancient stronghold where the shape-shifting descendants of Periclymenus supposedly hung out. After trudging across the island in the afternoon heat, we found the cave perched halfway up a beachside cliff. Frank insisted that we wait for him at the bottom while he checked it out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper wasn’t happy about that, but we stood obediently on the beach, squinting up at the cave entrance and hoping we hadn’t guided Frank into a death trap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t sense any hostility,” I assured Piper. “If Frank’s in danger, I can sense his anxiety levels.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, Piper seemed to scout out a path that we could take if there were an emergency.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind us, a stretch of white sand hugged the foot of the hills. Sunbathers sprawled on blankets, little kids splashed in the waves, and the blue sea glittered invitingly. Piper wished she could surf those waters. She’d promised to teach us someday, if we ever came out to Malibu…if Malibu still existed after August 1st.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced up at the cliff’s summit. The ruins of an old castle clung to the ride. I wasn’t sure if that was part of the shape-changers’ hideout or not. Nothing moved on the parapets. The entrance of the cave sat about seventy feet down the cliff-face - a circle of black in the chalky yellow rock like the hole of a giant pencil sharpener.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Nesto’s Cave</span>
  </em>
  <span>, the Laundromat ghost had called it. Supposedly the ancient king of Pylos had stashed his treasure there in times of crisis. The ghost also claimed that Hermes had once hidden the stolen cattle of Apollo in that cave - Hermes’ first act after being born in an effort to get him on the radar of the Olympians. It had worked, but Zeus had found the situation more hilarious than punishment-worthy, and Hermes had quickly won Apollo over by giving him a lyre in apology.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper had shuddered at the mention of cows. When she was little, her dad had driven her past a meat processing plant in China. The smell had been enough to turn her into a vegetarian. Ever since, just the thought of cows made her ill. Her experiences with Hera the cow queen, the katoblepones of Venice, and the pictures of creepy death cows in the House of Hades hadn’t helped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper was just starting to think “</span>
  <b>
    <em>Frank’s been gone too long-</em>
  </b>
  <span>” when he appeared at the cave entrance. Next to him stood a tall gray-haired man in a white linen suit and a pale yellow tie. The older man pressed a small shiny object - like a stone or a piece of glass - into Frank’s hands. He and Frank exchanged a few words. Frank nodded gravely. Then the man turned into a seagull and flew away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank picked his way down the trail until he reached us. “I found them,” he said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We noticed,” Piper said. “You okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared at the seagull as it flew towards the horizon. Frank’s close-cropped hair pointed forward like an arrow, making his gaze even more intense. His Roman badges - mural crown, centurion, praetor -  glittered on his shirt collar. On his forearm, the SPQR tattoo with the crossed spears of Mars stood out darkly in the full sunlight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked good in his new outfit. The giant warthog had slimed his old clothes pretty badly, so we’d taken him for some emergency shopping in Pylos. Now he wore new black jeans, soft leather boots, and a dark green Henley shirt. He was used to hiding his bulk in baggy clothes, but we assured him he didn’t have to worry about that anymore. Since his growth spurt in Venice, he’d grown into his bulkiness just fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You haven’t changed, Frank</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Piper had told him. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>You’re just more </span>
  </em>
  <span>you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a good thing Frank Zhang was still so sweet and soft-spoken. Otherwise, he would’ve been a scary guy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Frank?” I prompted gently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, sorry.” He focused on us again. “My, uh…cousins, I guess you’d call them…they’ve been living here for generations, all descended from Periclymenus the Argonaut. I told them my story, how the Zhang family had gone from Greece to Rome to China to Canada. I told them about the legionnaire ghost I saw in the House of Hades, urging me to come to Pylos. They…they didn’t seem surprised. They said it’s happened before, long-lost relatives coming home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I heard the wistfulness in his voice. “You were expecting something different.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shrugged. “A bigger welcome. Some party balloons. I’m not sure. My grandmother told me I would close the circle - bring our family honor and all that. But my cousins here…they acted kind of cold and distant, like they didn’t want me around. I don’t think they liked that I’m a son of Mars. Honestly, I don’t think they liked that I’m Chinese, either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper glared into the sky. The seagull was long gone, which was probably a good thing. She would have been tempted to shoot it out of the air with a glazed ham. “If your cousins feel that way, they’re idiots. They don’t know how great you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t help your birth,” I reminded him. “They shouldn’t judge your potential based on that anyway. </span>
  <em>
    <span>We</span>
  </em>
  <span> know the truth at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank shuffled from foot to foot. “They got a little more friendly when I told them I was just passing through. They gave me a going-away present.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He opened his hand. In his palm gleamed a metallic vial no bigger than an eyedropper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper resisted the urge to step away. “Is that the poison?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank nodded. “They call it Pylosian mint. Apparently the plant sprang from the blood of a nymph who died on a mountain near here, back in ancient times. I didn’t ask for details.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The vial was admittedly very tiny…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally we shouldn’t wish for </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> deadly poison, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was enough. I wasn’t sure how it would help make the so-called ‘physician’s cure’ that Nike had mentioned, but if the cure could really cheat death, we’d probably want a six-pack - enough for each of our friends. I knew from the basics of biology that antidotes could be made out of venom or poisons or whatever, so it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that a deadly poison could be made into something curative. With such a small amount, however, we’d only get one shot. We needed to find someone professional to make this cure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank rolled the vial around in his palm. “I wish Vitellius Reticulus were here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “Ridiculous who?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A smile flickered across his mouth. “Gaius Vitellius Reticulus, although we </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> call him Ridiculous sometimes. He was one of the Lares of the Fifth Cohort. Kind of a goofball, but he was the son of Aesculapius, the healing god. If anybody knew about this physician’s cure…he might.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aesculapius…? Why did that sound familiar? I recalled Rei and Veon casually discussing some Greek mythology with Audrey a while back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Honestly, your dad isn’t that bad,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Rei was saying. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hades isn’t really that bad in Greek mythology - I mean just look at Zeus.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Being a god of the dead and such is hard, delicate work, and a bit lonely, but it definitely feels more relaxing than the sky or the sea,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Veon agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>He kidnapped Persephone, but I mean at least he’s loyal to his wife rather than Zeus,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Audrey said. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Plus, kidnapping your wife was practically commonplace back then. And by all accounts, their relationship is remarkably functional. He warned Orpheus not to look back at his dead girlfriend, so </span>
  </em>
  <span>that’s</span>
  <em>
    <span> all Orpheus’s fault. And it’s not your dad’s fault that when Asclepius kept resurrecting the dead, Zeus responded by setting the guy on fire.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Come to think of it, Zeus really </span>
  </em>
  <span>is</span>
  <em>
    <span> the cause of most Greek problems,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Rei muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Asclepius, a physician’s cure that could resurrect the dead? I’d have to ask if it was Asclepius we should be looking for to make that magic resurrection cure. I didn’t remember anything else about Asclepius, but perhaps Audrey would have answers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A healing god would be nice,” Piper mused. “Better than having a screaming, tied-up victory goddess on board.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you’re lucky. My cabin is closest to the stables.” Frank frowned. “I can hear her yelling all night: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>FIRST PLACE OR DEATH! AN A-MINUS IS A FAILING GRADE!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Leo really needs to design a gag that’s better than my old sock.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper shuddered. She still didn’t understand why it had been a good idea to take the goddess captive. She knew that those other demigods were dangerous and all, but she was beginning to wonder why </span>
  <em>
    <span>they</span>
  </em>
  <span> hadn’t volunteered to take Nike even though they’d demonstrated they were clearly prepared to take Hera. Honestly, the sooner we got rid of Nike, the better.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So your cousins…did they have any advice about what comes next?” Piper asked hopefully. “This chained god we’re supposed to find in Sparta?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank’s expression darkened. “Yeah. I’m afraid they had some thoughts on that. Let’s get back to the ship, and I’ll tell you all about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper’s feet were killing her. She wondered if she could convince Frank to turn into a giant eagle and carry her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I spotted a scraggly fisherman with a white captain’s hat and a mouth full of gold teeth beaming at us. Standing at the shore, he had a skiff with an outboard motor. Curious, I headed across the sand towards him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, nice tourists! Boat ride? Very cheap!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I returned his smile. I loved it when I could communicate with the locals. I felt bad whenever I spoke only English because English practically ruled the world and made me sound like a clueless tourist. I enjoyed other languages, but French wasn’t exactly world-wide either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes please.” I said using my light charmspeak. “And can we request you take us somewhere special?”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>The boat captain dropped us at the Argo II, anchored a quarter mile out to sea. Piper pressed a wad of euros into the captain’s hands. We weren’t above using charmspeak on mortals, but she’d decided to be as fair and careful as possible. Piper’s days of stealing BMWs from car dealerships were over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” she told him. “If anyone asks, you took us around the island and showed us the sites. You dropped us at the docks in Pylos. You never saw any giant warship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No warship,” the captain agreed. “Thank you, nice American tourists!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We climbed aboard the Argo II.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well he was nice at least,” I mused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Frank smiled at us awkwardly. “Well…nice killing giant warthogs with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper laughed. “You too, Mr. Zhang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She gave him a hug, which seemed to fluster him, but Piper couldn’t help liking Frank. Not only was he a kind and considerate boyfriend to Hazel, but whenever Piper saw him wearing Jason’s old praetor’s badge, she felt grateful to him for stepping up and accepting that job. He had taken a huge responsibility off Jason’s shoulders and left him free (Piper hoped) to pursue a new path at Camp Half-Blood…assuming, of course, that we all lived through the next eight days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crew gathered for a hurried meeting on the foredeck - mostly because Percy was keeping an eye on a giant red sea serpent swimming off the port side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It seems to have mesmerized Percy,” Audrey muttered. “I worry it’s going to defeat him with its beauty alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think it’s defeating </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Rei said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>it</span>
  </em>
  <span> defeated Veon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They glanced down at Veon sleeping on the deck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, he’s just tired,” Rei dismissed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That thing is </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> red,” Percy muttered. “I wonder if it’s cherry-flavored.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why don’t you swim over and find out?” Annabeth asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How about no?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway,” Frank said, “according to my Pylos cousins, the chained god we’re looking for in Sparta is my dad…uh, I mean Ares, not Mars. Apparently the Spartans kept a statue of him chained up in their city so the spirit of war would never leave them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Torture and enslavement?” Azrael asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Statue,” Kaze shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oo-kay,” Leo said. “The Spartans were freaks. Of course, we’ve got Victory tied up downstairs, so I guess we can’t talk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason leaned against the forward ballista. “On to Sparta, then. But how does a chained god’s heartbeat help us find a cure for dying?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From the tightness in his face, it was clear he was still in pain. I remembered what Aphrodite had said: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s not just his sword wound, my dear. It’s the ugly truth he saw in Ithaca. If the poor boy doesn’t stay strong, that truth will eat right through him.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper?” Hazel prodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stirred, lost in the memory of her mother’s words. “Sorry, what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was asking you about the visions,” Hazel prompted. “You told me you’d seen some stuff in your dagger blade?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…right.” Piper reluctantly unsheathed Katoptris. Ever since she’d used it to stab the snow goddess Khione, the visions in the blade had become colder and harsher, like images etched in ice. She’d seen eagles swirling over Camp Half-Blood, a wave of earth destroying New York. She’d seen scenes from the past: her father beaten and bound at the top of Mount Diablo, Jason and Percy fighting giants in the Roman Colosseum, the river god Achelous reaching out to her, pleading for the cornucopia she’d cut from his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I, um…” She tried to clear her thoughts. “I don’t see anything right now. But one vision kept popping up. Annabeth, Emily, I are exploring some ruins-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ruins!” Leo rubbed his hands. “Now we’re talking. How many ruins can there be in Greece?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So many,” Kaze muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quiet, Leo,” Annabeth scolded. “Piper, do you think it was Sparta?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe,” Piper said. “Anyway…suddenly we’re in this dark place like a cave. We’re staring at this bronze warrior statue. In the vision I touch the statue’s face and the flames start swirling around us. Everything becomes hazy, and suddenly there’s loud music, bright flashing lights, and hysterical laughter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank scowled. “Well flames already make me uneasy about that vision. But what’s this about a dance party?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“An enemy of some sort?” Audrey guessed. “Hey, dancing someone to death was popular in some mythologies.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Honestly, that </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> sound disturbing if you think about it too hard,” Hazel muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy kept one eye on the red serpent, which was still slithering through the waves about a hundred yards to port. “Well if the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you too, man.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what I mean. You’re immune. Or, heck, give me some of those nice water grenades and </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll</span>
  </em>
  <span> go. Ares and I have tangled before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I once punched Ares in the face,” Rei mused. “Quite honestly, he’s a fun fight. He gets really into it at times.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth stared at the coastline of Pylos, now retreating in the distance. “If Piper saw the three of us going after the statue, then that’s who should go. Emily is </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> fireproof, may I remind you. We’ll be all right. There’s always a way to survive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not always,” Hazel warned. Since she had actually died and come back to life, her observation sort of killed the mood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Either way, trying to alter a prophecy never goes well,” I reminded them. “The last thing we need is to </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> know what’s coming by attempting to </span>
  <em>
    <span>avoid</span>
  </em>
  <span> this prophecy. Piper had a vision of you all drowning in that nymph place, but you managed to make it out, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Barely,” Percy muttered. He clearly didn’t enjoy the memory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper saved us,” Audrey remembered. “At the very least, it’s a sign that she should go, and no matter what happens, she’ll be the key to our success.” Audrey looked regretful that she had put that pressure onto Piper when she saw the nervous look on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank held out the vial of Pylosian mint. “What about this stuff? After the House of Hades, I kind of hoped we were done drinking poison.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Allow me.” Rei held her hand out and summoned the vial to her hand. “For now, all we can do is secure it until we have all the ingredients. I will make sure nothing happens to it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Once we figure out this chained god situation, we’ll head to the island of Delos,” Annabeth announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The curse of Delos,” Hazel remembered. “That sounds fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hopefully Apollo will be there. Delos was his home island. He’s the god of medicine. He should be able to advise us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He was the father of Asclepius, right?” Audrey recalled. “He got in trouble for reviving the dead. Let’s hope we can convince Apollo to give us a boon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aphrodite’s words came back to Piper: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You must bridge the gap between Roman and Greek, my child. Neither storm nor fire can succeed without you.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aphrodite had warned her of what was to come, told her what Piper would have to do to stop Gaea. Whether or not she would have the courage…Piper didn’t know.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Off the port bow, the cherry-flavored sea serpent spewed steam.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, it’s definitely checking us out,” Percy decided. “Maybe we should take to the air for a while.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Airborne it is!” Leo announced. “Festus, do the honors!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bronze dragon figurehead creaked and clacked. The ship’s engine hummed, the oars lifted, expanding into aerial blades with a sound like ninety umbrellas opening at once, and the Argo II rose into the sky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should reach Sparta by morning,” Leo said. “And remember to come by the mess hall tonight, folks, ‘cause Chef Leo is making his famous three-alarm tofu tacos!”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Buford the Wonder Table took his duties as acting chaperone very seriously. If he had the slightest suspicion a girl and a boy were in the same cabin without supervision, he would steam and clatter down the hall, his holographic projection of Coach Hedge yelling, “CUT THAT OUT! GIVE ME TWENTY PUSH-UPS! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only exceptions to this were Rei and Veon, who seemed to strike the fear of the gods into the three-legged table. Not that they really got up to anything when alone beyond meditating most of the time. Rei was trying to teach Veon about his powers more and more. As far as I was aware, she had a handle on her abilities same as back when she had just the power of Zyanya alone. She and Veon didn’t go on any quests recently, mostly because they believed we could handle it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But beyond that, Rei explained to the rest of our team that there were other things that she was dealing with at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gaea is working behind the scenes while waking, I’m sure you’re aware. I tell you this only because you are not of the Prophecy of Seven, and are instead part of a special team that must guide the prophecies and the future forward.” Rei sighed. “Reviving the giants is only one step to Gaea’s plans. She crammed as many powerful forces that she could through the Doors of Death while they were active, and there are a few that I’m worried about that </span>
  <em>
    <span>aren’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> working for Gaea but are just as dangerous. Think of all the big monsters in Greek Mythology - ones you know, and ones you don’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey sighed. “It’s bad enough that I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> about a lot of bad things in Greek Mythology. Curse my rampant studying.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And the Ward children?” Azrael asked. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Arme Seelen</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They are…very dangerous.” Rei plucked her drakon-bone violin’s strings. “Gaea may yet find power over them if she is to regain consciousness. Once she’s awoken, she will be able to exist in many places at once. She could siege Camp Half-Blood and the Romans while also fighting us in Athens and also conquer Mount Olympus with barely a fight. </span>
  <em>
    <span>If</span>
  </em>
  <span> she gets to full power,” she added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Veon continued, “The thing about those demigods from the Wards is that many of them have close connections to their godly blood, more potent than normal demigods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Facilities are built to enhance the celestial blood. But Boss and her team…nothing like them have ever been seen before. Their godly blood is mixed or otherwise enhanced beyond measure to give them the most power possible. Their destinies lay at Athens with us, but beyond that, I cannot see. You must understand, Boss and her team were built with the sole intention of fighting the gods should they become too erratic - something that this Greek and Roman conflict is clearly doing to them. If they deem that the gods are becoming too unstable and can no longer be trusted, they </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> act to eliminate them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? Is that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>possible</span>
  </em>
  <span> for a bunch of demigods?” Audrey exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For these demigods, yes. They were made and conditioned with the intention of destroying and replacing the gods to serve the Wards’ needs. The Wards were built out of a misplaced sense of fear of all that is not human. They fight monsters, but let’s not forget that it is gods who create just as many problems as monsters do. The Greek and Roman gods were born from Titans; they are just as monstrous, disguised to look more like the humans they are meant to protect. You could say easily that our current gods are all Titans as well - in some way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Zeus </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> the cause of most of our problems. Hell, his actions not believing Hera about the upcoming war nearly cost us a lot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rei,” I said. “They may be weapons and be dangerous, but…they’re all just kids.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “Nike said, when you captured her, that there will be loss - from us, from them as well. They may be the key to winning or losing this war, but you’re right. They’re children, most of them. Even the ones who are not still wish for freedom - they follow orders, but that does </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> mean they are inherently bad people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me try and talk with them and see if I can help see reason, connect us a bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would they trust you, as a charmspeaker?” Audrey asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. They deserve a chance to be happy, be free of their masters and their duties. And being nice is a quicker way to make allies than being mean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Catching more flies with honey than vinegar…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I doubt the Seven would pose a big threat to them anyway,” Veon said. He ran his hand through his hair. “We’re a bit in over our heads with them, it’s true.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This team was built for things that the demigods of the Prophecy of Seven were not meant to handle,” Rei said. “We were brought together for a purpose. We have to believe…” She sucked in a deep breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rei…are you…?” Veon seemed hesitant to ask. “Are you having trouble with your Primordials?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? No. Actually, I’m doing quite well.” She said that a little too fast for comfort. “It’s far easier than it was back with Zyanya while she was unstable. I don’t need equalizing injections anymore.” She rubbed her upper arm. Underneath her jacket, I knew that her skin was dotted with small scars and slices from a blade. Even with all her power, she didn’t want to heal those scars.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was twisting the ring on her right middle finger. That was the one from her mother, wasn’t it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still haven’t really gotten a full handle on my powers,” Rei admitted. “I can get a little of it at a time, but…” She sighed. “Yeah, it’s…still in the works, but I’ve got it! I won’t blow up or anything. Right now.” She really should have stopped talking, but she kept going and gave a small slump in her shoulders. “Okay, so it’s a little harder than it looks, but admittedly I’m doing far better than I thought I would! I’ve blown myself up a couple times, and there weren’t any actual explosions, it was all internal! And I can even talk to the Primordials’ consciousnesses sometimes. They’re a nice pair, but honestly, I don’t know what to make of them at times. They warn me about things I really shouldn’t say or do - ya know, prophecies and stuff - but for the most part I’m left on my own with my normal powers and the occasional boost from them when necessary. Only a last resort, of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Veon shouldered her lightly, causing her to pause before a light smile tugged at her lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right.” She swept her hand through her hair.  “Ya know, I think I hear some venti trying to destroy the ship. With Jason in such a delicate state, he’s definitely gonna need my help. I’ll go get Kaze too! Oh, but he might be sleeping with his unofficial-boyfriend…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think he’s doing some inventing right now,” I said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool. But maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> should check on him. Veon?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded and she stood, hurrying away up the stairs. Veon paused at the door and glanced back at me. “I need to…speak with you.” He seemed strained, as though admitting to needing help hurt him physically. “Alone. When possible. We need to…speak.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hurried out the door.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was awkward,” Audrey muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wonder what he has to say.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Veon?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. Tartarus.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“No, you don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> to go up for duty.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” Jason insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason’s face was so tan from our time on the coast of Africa that the scar on his lip looked like a chalk mark. His blue eyes were even more startling. His hair had grown out corn-silk white, though he still had a groove along his scalp where he’d been grazed by a bullet from the bandit Sciron’s flintlock. If such a minor scrap from Celestial bronze took so long to heal, I wondered how he’d ever get over the Imperial gold wound in his gut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I thought about something Hazel had confided in me a few nights ago: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>I think Jason is the linchpin to Hera’s whole scheme. He was her first play; he’s going to be her last.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “I can tell that you’re eager to prove yourself, Jason, but don’t push yourself, okay? That wound is…do you need an extra heal boost before you go? I know I can’t completely fix it, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emily, I appreciate you trying as hard as you have. You have no idea how much pain you’ve saved me from when you’ve put in your fire. It could be a lot worse if not for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “Well…I mean I kinda </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> sense your pain, but yeah…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All the same. You’ll only exhaust yourself worrying about me all the time. You worry about the entire crew, day in and day out. It’s easy to swing around a sword all day fighting monsters. It seems like an impossible task to monitor all of our emotional states at once - </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> certainly don’t think I could handle the pressure. Not to mention you’re handling Primordial energies or whatever. Just let me take a little weight off your shoulders; don’t worry about me. I’ll tell you if I need a little healing to feel better - I’d trust no other fire to do the job. Probably because it’d hurt rather than heal. Leo might have something to say about that, but I mean…have you </span>
  <em>
    <span>seen</span>
  </em>
  <span> the damage he does when he accidentally sets himself ablaze?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help my giggle at his attempt to lighten the mood. “All right. Go on and kick some venti butt. Or…wind. Or whatever. Just </span>
  <em>
    <span>be careful</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I don’t need Piper having another heart attack.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded and headed up to the main deck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I took one of the plates from the dining room and headed to the living quarters. While Veon and Rei slept in Veon’s room (Rei taking Nico’s place as Veon’s bunk-mate), Kaze and Azrael stayed in Rei’s room. With the magic TARDIS-like space in there, Kaze had turned it into his own armory and workshop. Kaze was unable to sleep because of his artificial, Remnant body - or rather, it was very difficult. He spent nights working on inventions and helping Leo with maintaining the ship. His little robot cats wandered all over the ship, looking for any problems or intruders and connecting to Festus and the mainframe to assist Leo’s work on his big creation. I passed a few of the little mouse-sized robot cats as I headed into Rei’s (Kaze’s) room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I brought a snack~”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze hummed in acknowledgment but didn’t turn away from his work desk. Azrael was sleeping in the bed a short distance away. Kaze kept glancing up at him a couple times with a smile on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’cha workin on?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held up a sniper rifle. His Japanese accent was always cute. “I have modified Sciron’s pistol and ammo to create long-range firing equipment. Frictionless bullets. That was how Sciron was so accurate from such a long distance. He merely had to point and shoot - no adjusting for gravity, wind resistance, etc. I do not have his eyes, but I researched weapons back at the Wards.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He frowned, setting the weapon into the wooden desk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They had us inventing for them. Day and night. Anyone with the blood of inventing deities. We made the weapons that would harm and capture our own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I walked over and set the sandwich for him on the desk. “I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I can stop the others. I can stop them.” He glanced over at Azrael, who slept without the covers even though he seemed cold. “We will not go back. They will not take us. I know the weapons, I can use them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think you can replicate the Wards’ technology to stop Boss’s group? Actually that’s…not a bad plan. You mean you know the tech that could cancel out celestial abilities?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He nodded. “I do not have perfect equipment, but I am trying to replicate what I learned back then. This is sniper for long-range like Sciron.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Frictionless bullets?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And enhanced scope. I have range of 3250 meters. A little over 2 miles.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He handed me a small ring-like device. He motioned for me to hold it up like a monocle, so I did, slipping off my glasses. He pointed out the window of the cabin where I could see land in the distance. He reached up and twisted a band on the monocle, causing my vision to zoom in immensely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whoa.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I reached up to adjust the ring’s scope.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze slipped on a pair of his tech glasses as information soared past his eyes. “Adjusting for your eyesight. Tracking eye dilation to accommodate for depth perception.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The scope automatically refocused and somehow the picture became even </span>
  <em>
    <span>clearer</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I could see the mountains, the individual trees, and could even zoom in to focus on some small bugs on the mainland.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Motion stabilizer will focus on a target based on eye dilation. You may need to hold your head still when using it. It is meant for snipers, therefore you would hold still and aim the weapon. I suppose you would have no need. It is for Onesan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I handed the small sniper scope back to Kaze. He took it and then snatched my glasses before I could replace them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He shoved another pair of glasses into my hand. He tapped his own pair. “Battle glasses. Communication, information storage. Or do you want contacts?” He reached into one of the compartments in the drawers and pulled out a pack of contact lenses. “I will distribute them for information collection and battle data to the crew. Communication beads?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. Hazel and Veon had set us up with some magic beads that could help us communicate telepathically - and more importantly, translate for things like Kaze’s Japanese and Azrael’s German. They were energy-draining, but they </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> work over long distances in emergencies. It had been Audrey’s idea to make them, and they’d helped with communication in basic battles. They needed to recharge with Mist, but it was also Kaze’s main way to communicate before Azrael came along. Kaze was still doing testing on them along with the rest of his inventions. When Azrael was asleep or otherwise incapacitated, Kaze had only the Google-translate levels of communication that the beads provided - good enough, but not perfect. To him, the rest of us were speaking broken Japanese. Admittedly his Japanese accent was adorable though, and it came out more when he wasn’t being perfectly translated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They will connect to the beads if necessary. Though it only sometimes works.” He frowned in thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I took the pair of glasses he offered gratefully and tried them on. They were blurry at first, but they quickly adjusted to make my view crystal-clear. I couldn’t help but once again admire Kaze and Leo’s inventions. As a demigod, regular technology was rarely - if ever - available, and so Kaze and Leo replicating human technology so that we could take advantage of the benefits? It was amazing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should get some sleep, Kaze. You know you shouldn’t be up long without Azrael.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m with Azrael,” he protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“With an </span>
  <em>
    <span>awake</span>
  </em>
  <span> Azrael.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He glanced over at Azrael, slightly shivering in the bed. Kaze flicked his finger and summoned a warm breeze to pull the duvet over him. I felt Kaze’s light warm feelings in his core at seeing Azrael pull the blanket tighter around himself. I knew Kaze worried that he would lose himself and access to his soul without Azrael, but he was still plenty human in there all on his own - so long as he didn’t give in to hatred that fueled his Reanimation body. And Kaze had a lot to hate, but he also had a lot to love; the key was to focus on the latter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We are not given warm blankets until we are good,” Kaze explained, referencing the Wards. “Azrael likes death, but he does not have to be cold.” Kaze glanced down at his own hand. Though it </span>
  <em>
    <span>looked</span>
  </em>
  <span> human, it was almost like living, shifting clay with the same color as human skin. “I am cold. I cannot offer warmth to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I reached out and took his hand. It was not warm like a living thing’s, but it wasn’t cold, either. “You aren’t cold, Kaze. And you don’t have to be warm to offer love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Love? I do not love! Not me!” His eyes widened in realization almost like a cartoon. “I am watching him sleep. I am creeper!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help but giggle as Kaze threw his hands to his face and had a mild and sudden panic attack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze. Kaze, calm down. Azrael wouldn’t have fallen asleep beside you if he didn’t think you might </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> him. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with you liking him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am…” Kaze waved down his body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly. Who better to be with a boy between life and death than another boy </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> between life and death?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze glanced over at Azrael and then quickly looked away. I could tell that if he still had blood pumping through his system, he might be blushing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re human enough to be in love, Kaze. Hold tight to that, and you won’t become like her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His face fell neutral in that dark way that made him resemble a mannequin. He hunched over his desk. “Thank you for the food. It was not necessary, but I appreciate it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No problem.” I patted him on the shoulder and turned to leave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze swept aside the many files on his desk. Underneath, a drawn picture of his mother smiled back at him from a time long forgotten. It was the final of many hundreds of doodles of his mother he’d drawn (and subsequently burned), trying to remember the contours of her human face, how she had looked when she was genuinely happy. He had realized, halfway through, that it wasn’t because he had been little when he’d last seen her alive and human that he couldn’t get her smiling face right. It was because he’d never seen her genuinely smile ever. It was always sadistic, twisted pleasure, false happiness and strained love.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d wasted plenty of trees trying to imagine what she looked like when she smiled - though he’d only wasted a few minutes at the speed he had been drawing. And yet it took him only a real-time minute to draw her scowl, and then another to draw her sadness. Living as a human or as a Reanimation, it was all the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He began modifying his rifle once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael had told him that he had met with his parents multiple times - Reapers in the Veil between life and death that had been hunting Reanimations to bring their souls back to death. They were essentially psychopomps working for Death after they’d died when they shouldn’t have - Rei’s godly parent had ended up letting them be killed before their time in order to take a human body. Needless to say, the death gods and the Fates were not pleased. Rei’s parent had been naïve, yes, but all they had wanted was a chance at living with humans when they had no original form. They learned their lesson, or so Rei said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael’s mother, Hannah, had a child who should have been born when she was alive, and after some arguing and paperwork from Thanatos, Azrael had been deposited into the human world - allowed to have one life after being born from death. Hannah and her husband Ithuriel were not allowed to follow him. Azrael was soon taken to the Wards (having no parents, seemingly popping out of nowhere with powers over death and souls), which was no life he should’ve ever had to live.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze often wondered if Azrael would’ve been happier if he’d just stayed with his parents - forever a Reaper from the start, never knowing the pain of living. But there was no use pondering what-if scenarios. He was here now, and Kaze was determined to make sure Azrael never had to go back, that he would be allowed to finally live the life he had been granted the way he </span>
  <em>
    <span>should</span>
  </em>
  <span> - free to make his own choices.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>First things first, win this war and find peace. Kaze felt bad that Azrael had been thrust right into a war the moment he’d escaped the Wards, but Azrael assured him that he was having fun - new friends, knowing his parents, learning his powers on his own terms, using them for good to fight monsters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The last time we’d seen Azrael’s parents had been at the House of Hades, where Kaze’s mother and Rei’s father had fled before the battle could conclude. Azrael’s parents were on a hunt for Kaze’s mother Tsuchi and Rei’s father Kandai - Reanimations like Kaze, but working for Gaea. Tsuchi had implied she intended to rebel, but that might have just been a ploy to convince Kaze to become a Reanimation too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze had agreed to the risk of becoming a Reanimation (after Gaea revived him as a normal boy) in order to become strong enough to fight them. He’d done it so that he could fight his mother. Perhaps he’d made the bargain to save Azrael when they’d first met, but he’d also done it for himself; Kaze wanted - </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> - more strength, more speed, more power. He’d become what he was for one purpose alone, fueled by rage at the gods for what they’d let happen to his sister and friends, but more importantly at what his mother had become because of them. Once he had defeated her, once he had </span>
  <em>
    <span>saved</span>
  </em>
  <span> her, he wondered if his body would no longer be able to function without that rage - because once he’d saved his mother, he would let go. Until then…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will return you to Punishment, Mother,” Kaze promised. He pulled back the lever of the rifle that released a bullet shell of Celestial bronze. “I can perhaps then give you peace.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Translations:</p><p>‘Arme Seelen’ - Poor souls</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. A New Mission and Fears in Sparta</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The second of a triple update. Because I'm so sorry for the long break. So sorry.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Quake</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I did not hate Mirage. I also did not like them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Acropolis. An ancient stronghold perched on a hill almost as impressive as Gibraltar. Rising four hundred feet over the nighttime sprawl of modern Athens, the sheer cliffs were topped with a crown of limestone walls. On the summit, a collection of ruined temples and modern cranes gleamed silver in the moonlight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I did not like flying. I could jump off the ground when in combat, and I’d had training specifically in air-type situations, but that didn’t make things any more reassuring. Eyes open or not, flying above the Parthenon - the ancient temple of Athena, the left side of its hollow shell encased in metal scaffolding - was not good for motion sickness. If only Famine could’ve been the one to take me. She traveled through the earth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Acropolis seemed devoid of mortals, perhaps because of the financial problems in Greece. Or perhaps Gaea’s forces had arranged some pretext to keep the tourists and construction workers away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dropping us on the metal scaffolding, Mirage floated away and dispersed into their Mist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t get why we needed to come,” Seven muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is reconnaissance,” I said. “We must not be detected.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you need my luck, right. But why </span>
  <em>
    <span>her?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Seven referenced Pain, who was balancing a blade on the tip of her finger, letting it bite into her skin and draw blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Entertainment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?! Why you-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shh.” I put my finger to my lips.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She snapped her mouth shut, remembering where we were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Inside the temple, many giants had gathered to the point that it looked like a cocktail party for redwood trees. The twins, Ephialtes and Otis (who had last been seen in Rome), dressed in matching construction worker outfits; Polybotes (who had last been seen attacking Camp Jupiter), dripping poison from his dreadlocks and a breastplate sculpted to resembled hungry mouths; Enceladus (last seen on Mount Diablo struck by a bolt of lightning that had literally split the mountain in twain), armor etched with flame designs, his hair braided with bones, and a flagpole-sized spear burning with purple fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though the stories said that each giant was born to oppose a particular god, there were </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> more than twelve giants gathered in the Parthenon. Of course it was easy to say that there were way more than just twelve gods, but the giants born to oppose the Olympians were meant to be the worst, after all. I counted at least twenty giants, and if that wasn’t intimidating enough, around the giants’ feet milled a horde of smaller monsters - Cyclopes, ogres, six-armed Earthborn, and serpent-legged dracaenae. In the center of the crowd stood an empty, makeshift throne of twisted scaffolding and stone blocks apparently yanked at random from the ruins.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant that got my attention was the one known as Efímeros. Though the giant was not physically intimidating (just white-scaled dragon legs with a green iridescent sheen, golden plate armor with no decals, and white dreadlock hair with light blue highlights) their energy was similar to that of Lust’s. Their presence was calm, relaxed, even rejuvenating, and beneath it all was some of the most sadistic and mentally draining energy that I’d ever encountered. Then again, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> live with half a dozen annoyingly draining people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What mattered was that Efímeros had made it here intact. Which made our lives all the more interesting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As we watched, a new giant lumbered up the steps at the far end of the Acropolis. He wore a massive velour tracksuit with gold chains around his neck and greased-back hair, so he looked like a thirty-foot-tall mobster - if mobsters had dragon feet and burnt orange skin. The mafia giant ran towards the Parthenon and stumbled inside, flattening several Earthborn under his feet. He stopped, gasping for breath at the foot of the throne.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is Porphyrion?” he demanded. “I have news!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Enceladus stepped forward. “Tardy as usual, Hippolytos. I hope your news is worth the wait. King Porphyrion should be…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ground between them split. An even larger giant leaped from the earth like a breaching whale.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“King Porphyrion is here,” announced the king.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Last seen at the Wolf House in Sonoma. Forty feet tall, he towered over his brethren. In fact, he was the same size as the Athena Parthenos that had once dominated the temple. In his seaweed-colored braids, captured demigod weapons glittered. His face was cruel and pale green, his eyes as white as the Mist. His body radiated its own sort of gravity, causing the other monsters to lean towards him. My nose crinkled in annoyance at the feeling. Dirt and pebbles skittered across the ground, pulled towards his massive dragon feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The mobster giant Hippolytos kneeled. “My king, I bring word of the enemy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Porphyrion took his throne. “Speak.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The demigod ship sails around the Peloponnese. Already have they destroyed the ghosts at Ithaca and captured the goddess Nike in Olympia!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crowd of monsters stirred uneasily. A Cyclops chewed his fingernails; two dracaenae exchanged coins like they were taking bets for the End-of-the-World office pool.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Porphyrion just laughed. “Hippolytos, do you wish to kill your enemy Hermes and become the messenger of the giants?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, my king!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you will have to bring fresher news. I know all this already. None of it matters! The demigods have taken the route we </span>
  <em>
    <span>expected</span>
  </em>
  <span> them to take. They would have been fools to go any other way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And yet, sire, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>other</span>
  </em>
  <span> demigods have taken the path through the Straits of Corinth and all but annihilated most of the forces stationed there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Porphyrion’s misty eyes narrowed. “They have made their choice then. You’ve word from the Betrayer?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hippolytos nodded. “The Titan King and the Typhoon have risen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant king snorted. “The ruler of the lesser children of Gaea was chosen? Even after his pitiful attempt at conquering his children not long ago?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was not </span>
  <em>
    <span>pitiful</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Efímeros leaned against the ancient stone wall of the Parthenon. “He came very close. Cunning little bastard nearly won, if it weren’t for his own body turning on him in the end - and even </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was carefully planned. Using a demigod host who hated the very gods he was born from, dipping him in the Styx to strengthen up his body….oh, it was smart indeed. Had a few short moments during that final battle been different, our uprising would be against the Titans, not the Olympians. Of course, the Jackson boy dipping in the Styx turned the tides of battle, but Kronos also managed to raise Typhon to wreak havoc as well. The beast rampaged merely because that’s what monsters </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but imagine if he’d had his </span>
  <em>
    <span>wits</span>
  </em>
  <span> about him. Oh a </span>
  <em>
    <span>brilliant</span>
  </em>
  <span> battle that would be. The despair that would ravage the demigods at the sight of Zeus’s worst nightmares working together coherently…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How dare you say such a thing - in the presence of our King Porphyrion, no less!” someone shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh? Did I </span>
  <em>
    <span>offend</span>
  </em>
  <span> you? Is the idea that Typhon may yet become stronger than you that terrifying, oh great king? Of course, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> the strongest of Gaea’s children, you can’t dispute that. But he is </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> not a ruler. Like I said, Typhon acts mostly on instinct. He’s not a king, not like you. So keep your metaphorical pants on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How vulgar! Who are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> to speak to our king in such a way-?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Efímeros,” Porphyrion interjected. “What does Kronos have to gain in this war? Where do his loyalties lie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hippolytos?” Efímeros prompted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He has allied himself with the Betrayer successfully. They now train Typhon for their next move. They will fight the demigods with us to wake the Earth Mother - though the Betrayer stated that…that they would only assist should we be too weak to handle them ourselves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A murmur swept throughout the crowd. Porphyrion was clearly unhappy with this ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Betrayer</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ but he remained dignified as he addressed the unmasked threat. At least he knew not to shoot the messenger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is no need to be concerned over the fate of the demigods. Their camps are on the verge of destruction and the demigod ship follows the path we intended to their doom. They’ve no other options that we can’t easily predict, and it is only a matter of time. As for the </span>
  <em>
    <span>other</span>
  </em>
  <span> children…the Betrayer has plans for them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain frowned. Even though she hated reconnaissance and infiltration, she narrowed her eyes at the words. Clearly the giants were talking about </span>
  <em>
    <span>us</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but who was this ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Betrayer?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ As a daughter of Nemesis, Pain knew about betrayal and revenge. Who could this person be to revive Kronos and Typhon and take them together - to be able to threaten the giants and say they would aid only if the Giants found themselves incapable?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But, sire, the demigod ship will arrive at Sparta by morning! If they manage to unleash the makhai-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Idiot!” Porphyrion’s voice shook the ruins. “Our brother Mimas awaits them at Sparta. You need not worry. The demigods cannot change their fate. One way or another, their blood shall be spilled upon these stones and wake the Earth Mother!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crowd roared approval and brandished their weapons. Hippolytos bowed and retreated, but another giant approached the throne. It was hard to tell, but this giant was </span>
  <em>
    <span>female</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She had the same dragon-like legs and the same long braided hair, just as tall and burly as the males, but her breastplate was definitely fashioned for a woman and her voice was higher and reedier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Father!” she cried. “I ask again: Why here, in this place? Why not on the slopes of Mount Olympus itself? Surely-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Periboia,” the king growled, “the matter is settled. The original Mount Olympus is now a barren peak. It offers us no glory. Here, in the center of the Greek world, the roots of the gods truly run deep. There may be older temples, but this Parthenon holds their memory best. In the minds of mortals, it is the most powerful symbol of the Olympians. When the blood of the last heroes is spilled here, the Acropolis shall be razed. This hill shall crumble, and the entire city shall be consumed by the Earth Mother. The Betrayer shall fight the empty battle at the new Mount Olympus against the pathetic gods who are torn apart by their followers as we speak, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> shall be the ones to uproot their very foundations! We will be the masters of creation!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crowd hollered and howled, but Periboia didn’t look convinced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You tempt fate, Father,” she said. “The demigods have friends here as well as enemies. It is not wise-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WISE?” Porphyrion rose from his throne. All the giants took a step back except Efímeros, who looked rather bored. “Enceladus, my counselor, explain to my daughter what wisdom is!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fiery giant came forward. His eyes glowed like diamonds. “You need not worry, princess. We have taken Delphi. Apollo was driven out of Olympus in shame. The future is closed to the gods. They stumble forward blindly. As for tempting fate…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gestured to his left, and a smaller giant shuffled forward. He had ratty gray hair, a wrinkled face, and eyes that were milky with cataracts. Instead of armor, he wore a tattered sackcloth tunic. His dragon-scale legs were as white as frost. He didn’t look like much, but the other monsters kept their distance. Even Prophyrion leaned away from the old giant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seven’s nose crinkled at the sight - and aura - of the elderly giant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is Thoon,” Enceladus said. “Just as many of us were born to kill certain gods, Thoon was born to kill the Three Fates. He will strangle the old ladies with his bare hands. He will shred their yarn and destroy their loom. He will destroy Fate itself!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>King Porphyrion rose and spread his arms in triumph. “No more prophecies, my friends! No more futures foretold! The time of Gaea shall be our era, and we will make our own destiny!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crowd cheered so loudly, I was knocked back by the resulting vibrations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was once told that humans used vibrating technology on their persons - for toothbrushes, for washing their faces, for massages, or for some sort of entertainment. I hated the idea of such violent, uncontrollable vibrations. I could never understand why they’d subject themselves to an outside force strong enough to rattle their very bones. Though in retrospect, I suppose they used weak vibrations, but all the same I found the idea abhorrent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Wards had trained me by strapping me to machines and vibrating speakers with frequencies that were painful. Human technology could not produce anything powerful and precise enough to actually liquefy a person because the human frequency was constantly in flux, but they came darn close. Those painful days made me feel like I was being ripped apart, turning my senses to mush. Blinded, ears protected, all I had to rely on was seismic sense. Pulling myself together was like pulling my very muscles, bones, and tendons out from beneath my skin and controlling them directly. I was put into multiple comas because I was unable to protect my very brain from being vibrated into unconsciousness. But they had healers, and the healers always brought me back from death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wanted to stop the incessant noise, force it all to come to a stop, give myself peace and quiet again. So I gripped the air and pulled it all under my will. I stomped down on the metal scaffolding we stood upon, and the shockwave traveled across the entire Acropolis. The ground, the air, it all came to a halt. Every vibration in the area slowed to become nothing but the gentle hum of the atoms themselves lightly shaking as they always did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I heaved a heavy sigh of relief. Peace and quiet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Intruders!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quake…!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seven grabbed both me and Pain and jumped off the edge of the scaffolding. The Mist grabbed us and whisked us away before the giants could even pinpoint our location.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Betrayer, huh?” Boss repeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who was Periboia, anyway?” Pain asked. “The name sounds familiar, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daughter of Porphyrion, born to oppose Aphrodite/Venus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain snapped. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>There</span>
  </em>
  <span> it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We saw Thoon,” Seven said lightly. “They intend to destroy the Fates, destroy Fate itself so that they might forge their own paths. Is that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>possible?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In theory, yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seven, who had control over future possibilities, knew about Boss and her Third Eye ability to access the infinite possibilities of the universe. Boss hadn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>intended</span>
  </em>
  <span> to tell Seven about it, but it was impossible to keep hidden from Seven when she herself nearly broke down and lost her mind from being too close to Boss’s Third Eye. Boss was the only one of her Athena children creations in the Wards to be able to manage the Eye as well as she did - that is, without going insane and even being able to move about and use the Eye to guide her movements and the future. It risked Boss’s life every time she opened it, and I hated the idea that she strained herself on purpose to use it. Famine was able to help give her the energy she needed to recover, but even Famine hated the idea that Boss was straining herself so much to use it when she did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss and Seven both could see the future to some extent, but Boss’s Third Eye was strong enough to guide our team even through the uncertainty of Apollo’s Oracle being missing. I wondered if her power was connected to the Fates, or perhaps it was something even greater.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Three Fates being eliminated sounded…sketchy. The future happened as it happened. Regardless of whether you could see it or know it or predict it or even manipulate it, time continued onwards and events just…happened. Was Boss connecting herself to the fabric of reality itself with that Third Eye? And I did wonder how the Wards managed to give her - and her other siblings of Athena experiments - the Third Eye ability in the first place (nevermind the whole using-it-without-going-insane bit).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Fates merely guide time and are a </span>
  <em>
    <span>representation</span>
  </em>
  <span> of Fate,” Boss explained. “They are a manifestation of the future, merely a…visual indicator. If they disappeared, we would simply lose the sentient beings that indicate Fate’s work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So the goal is to get rid of the sentience,” Seven muttered. “I suppose one must feel more secure when they don’t know that everything in this world is preordained.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was an odd sensation to know that Seven must have gone her entire life knowing how events played out - knowing the odds and that she could control what happens to a lighter extent. If Boss’s Third Eye was strong enough to drive the wielder mad knowing the infinite possibilities surrounding anything and everything in time itself, Seven must at least have a fraction of that madness when she could predict the fate of even the smallest things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew that Seven had her insecurities at times. The Wards had intended to condition </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> to kill the Fates, but rather than destroy Fate like Thoon, she was built to take their place. The Wards wanted to use her to control Fate itself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They wanted us to fight the gods, maybe even take their place should they become unstable. The split between Greek and Roman was the very reason our team had been called in in the first place - the gods looked out of control, and that was dangerous for human society.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Each of us was built to do a god’s job for them, but Seven had one of the biggest burdens. How was she expected to take over the job of the Fates themselves? There were </span>
  <em>
    <span>three</span>
  </em>
  <span> Fates for a reason; there needed to be multiple pathways in life, and the job of weaving the future itself was not a job for a single person. Seven wasn’t a meditator - I knew that - and she was actually one of the most human of our group. She wasn’t ethereal like Boss. She wasn’t physically powerful like me or Famine. She couldn’t handle too much information and manipulate reality like Mirage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew she felt inferior to the rest of us. Iota tried to convince her otherwise. Iota herself had the burden of being assigned to Zeus. Though she was born from one of Zeus’s lightning bolts, that hardly made her more powerful than Zeus himself  - he had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> more lightning bolts after all. I’d heard the story of how one of Zeus’s bolts had been stolen recently and the gods had practically led a manhunt to find out who took it. Iota hadn’t seemed to have been an important enough bolt to be missed - that or the Wards were good at hiding her (honestly, I wouldn’t put it against them; they hid a lot of our team from the gods very well).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d undergone the same terrible training as the rest of us, but her warm and gentle personality made it clear that she probably wouldn’t be up to a true battle against Zeus. At least, that was the impression I got from her. Boss didn’t say anything about it. Boss probably knew that Iota would do what it took should the time come. I certainly hoped so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They talked of this Betrayer with great hope in their hearts,” Pain said. “Hope for revenge, hope for the despair of the gods. It was clear that this Betrayer was someone that the gods had wronged and that the giants hoped they would get revenge upon them. They believe this Betrayer holds great rage within their heart towards the gods. If this Betrayer is apparently going to be coming after us, we should take caution. I don’t like the name ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Betrayer</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ It could mean they are some kind of god or giant of betrayals. They could make us betray each other. Depending on how insidiously they do so, we could very much believe that our opinion is superior to another’s and cause even minor infighting that leads to active treason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will watch over our actions and my people,” Boss declared. “Worry not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about Kronos and Typhon?” Seven recalled. “Those two working together incited the last war here in the states, didn’t it? Too bad we missed </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bash, but I’m not entirely sure how </span>
  <em>
    <span>we’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> supposed to fight them. We’re suited to the gods - and by proxy the giants. But Kronos and Typhon are…wildcards.” She flicked her coins between her fingers, as she did when she was thinking too hard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know Famine and her history?” Boss asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know about as much as everyone else,” she replied carefully. Dealing with Boss’s queries was always a dangerous thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you likely know she has the skill to counter Kronos should he become a problem. As for Typhon…he can be dealt with.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t seriously think we can </span>
  <em>
    <span>defeat</span>
  </em>
  <span> that thing?” Pain blurted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>None of the team ever doubted Boss knew what she was doing, but admittedly she </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> say some crazy things at times without any explanation. Pain was one of the weaker of the team - or at least not one of the powerhouses who could get by through brute force alone - and so it was understandable why she’d have her doubts about some big eldritch horror like Typhon that even the gods struggled to defeat in the past and still feared to this day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Olympians defeated Typhon with the help of Poseidon’s power during the last war,” Boss explained. “The key to doing it was to both overwhelm him and to rip a portal to Tartarus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah, nothing to it,” Pain muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss smiled. Her smiles were rare and varied on the bipolar scale of gently soothing to gently horrifying. This was not gently soothing. “Have more faith in us, dear Pain. Have more faith in </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I…I have plenty of faith in </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Boss.” Pain averted her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain was not afraid of physical pain, but mental pain was another thing for her. There were ways to make us all afraid, and Boss would not hesitate to resort to those methods if we stepped out of line. She was our leader, and she was </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> our chaperone while we worked away from the Wards. She’d face a punishment ten-times worse than anything we could imagine if any of us got her into trouble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then there’s not a problem,” Boss said with an air of finality.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain rolled her eyes and stalked away. “Whatever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m turning in too,” Seven announced. “Call me when you need me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss and I were left alone. She was back to looking pensive. There was such thing as a resting bitch face. Boss had a resting Boss face. There was just that normal look she got when her mind was working too fast for the rest of reality and she left her body behind to go into a mind-palace. She almost looked like she was tired, but really it was more like she wasn’t putting the effort into moving her muscles to change her appearance for the sake of others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pointed at her and then put up an OK sign with my fingers. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You okay?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded and put up a fist and mimed knocking. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew that Boss had the same problem that I had that talking felt like an effort at times, and I could see the exhaustion on her face. I had an excuse - talking actually required me to use my powers since I had no actual vocal cords. But Boss just got so mentally exhausted that the simplicity of sign language became relaxing when you just needed to form the major words and omit the useless filler words between them. Both of us knew multiple forms of sign language, Morse, and even our own minor communication techniques, and it was relaxing for both of us to talk like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Food, water?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ I asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sure.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I guided her off to get something to eat. I knew she tended to neglect food at times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ she signed abruptly. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sorry.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>What?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t reply and just kept walking. I followed her without pressing, knowing that she’d only explain if she herself wanted to. Nothing could get Boss to do something she didn’t want to. Nothing but the Wards, at least. I knew she sometimes hated following their orders; I knew she had become so attached to her team that sometimes it hurt her to have to hurt them in favor of following orders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You, mission, Quake</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” She spelled out my name gently. She had a new mission for me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>What and where?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ I replied quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Poseidon child. Time.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was time. It was time to face the Poseidon child in battle and prove myself against my greatest weakness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sorry</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ she said again.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s this all about?” I asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Veon pulled the plug on his bathtub drain and then sealed it closed. He then pulled the handle and turned on the gushing water, starting to fill the tub with water that was growing to the hottest state.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re wasting-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I’m preserving the water,” he protested. “I could’ve let it go down the drain,” he reasoned. “Anyway, we have until the tub fills to finish our business here. I’ve got limited time anyway, so best to put a time limit on this meeting. Plus, this keeps any wandering ears from hearing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He paused and glanced around suspiciously. He knelt down on his hands and knees and reached behind the toilet and pulled out a protesting robotic cat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eavesdropping pest.” He crushed the metal robotic cat in his fist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey! You didn’t have to </span>
  <em>
    <span>break</span>
  </em>
  <span> it! That was one of Kaze’s-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know!</span>
  </em>
  <span> But none can overhear us!” he snapped. “I can only distract Khaos in their weakened state for so long!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swept an aura across the bathroom that sent a powerful tingle down my spine. I knew the power of Tartarus, I knew what it felt like, but it didn’t stop my nerves from firing on all cylinders. I had </span>
  <em>
    <span>control</span>
  </em>
  <span> over my emotions and still I could barely keep myself from dashing towards the door and trying to bust it down to get out of this oppressive state.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t speak,” Tartarus ordered. “I won’t have time to answer many questions, so let me get everything I need to say out first!” Without waiting for an answer, he began. “Original Khaos is the Primordial combination of both Order and Lesser Chaos. In the beginning, Original Khaos was one being, before it split off into Order and Lesser Chaos to create a sort of yin and yang situation - balancing and counteracting the different aspects of Original Khaos in order to allow for growth, creation, and destruction. Basically, it was the splitting of Original Khaos that allowed for the creation of </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>. If Original Khaos hadn’t gotten it into their metaphorical head to want to create stuff, it would’ve just kept on existing as nothing but an empty void.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Order and Lesser Chaos created me, Gaea, Eros, and the other secondary Primordial creations, blah, blah, blah, creation of your stupid world! What you need to know is that Original Khaos </span>
  <em>
    <span>cannot</span>
  </em>
  <span> exist properly in a world of…</span>
  <em>
    <span>existence</span>
  </em>
  <span>. By putting them together inside of one host, you’ve created a disaster in the making! They may </span>
  <em>
    <span>seem</span>
  </em>
  <span> stable now, but you can probably sense it, can’t you, girl? They’re slowly descending into madness - or rather, they’re setting up the destruction of this world, returning it all to the days of Original Khaos: </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothingness</span>
  </em>
  <span>. But Original Khaos hasn’t existed in so long. It’s not going to be a flash and nothing exists anymore. Original Khaos is going to go mad. This entire world will burn, Original Khaos will revel in every creature - mortal, divine, Primordial alike - all suffering the end of this world as entertainment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You were given the power to control even the gods’ - even the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Primordial</span>
  </em>
  <span> consciousnesses, and there is supposed to be a chosen one for Order, Lesser Chaos, and yes, even me! There is a chosen host of Gaea, a chosen host of Eros - the Primordial one, not Cupid - and a Host of Nyx, etc. There is a proper chosen host for all of us existing at all times, born into random bodies and random people. And there is always a medium somewhere who has the power to move around the consciousnesses; the intention is to banish the deity from the host should they become unpredictable or trap the consciousness in the host as a punishment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My original plan was to take the host of Lesser Chaos and gain power over his domain, while Gaea planned to take over Order, but things have changed. Never could we have predicted that someone would’ve ever attempted and </span>
  <em>
    <span>succeeded</span>
  </em>
  <span> in uniting Original Khaos again, but they are already setting up the end of this world. Gaea doesn’t see the problem - as far as she’s concerned, Original Khaos’s plans are only working to her favor of destroying the current system of the gods and demigods and mortals, but what she </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> seem to comprehend is that Original Khaos won’t stop at destroying the current status quo! You, medium girl, need to split Original Khaos back into its two parts again or we’re all doomed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He finally paused and took deep breaths. I carefully took that as my sign to speak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…you want me to free you from Veon and use him for-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I need you to put one of them into their proper host!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I thought Veon was the host for Chaos - er, Lesser Chaos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He spoke with the contained, gritted-teeth rage of a parent trying to scold a child while attempting (and failing) to stay on their good side. “He’s an </span>
  <em>
    <span>Omni!</span>
  </em>
  <span> He and the girl are </span>
  <em>
    <span>Omni</span>
  </em>
  <span> chosen ones! There’s a reason that they’re so special - they can host any deity they please, contain and control them - even us Primordials. One Omni is built to empower, the other built to imprison. But this one would still be valuable to me if I had complete control over him! You cannot possibly </span>
  <em>
    <span>fathom</span>
  </em>
  <span> the rare qualities these two possess! He can handle the brunt of more power than my normal host ever </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span>. But Original Khaos is suppressing me, </span>
  <em>
    <span>imprisoning</span>
  </em>
  <span> me in here. Luckily they’re having rapid mood swings and power imbalances at the moment and I managed to get some time with you without them stopping me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He glanced over at the rapidly filling bathtub. It was already 3/4 of the way full, maybe more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nevermind that. You need to find another proper host somewhere, another Omni if possible. I heard there were five Omni hosts in existence at any given time. That plus the fact that Order and Lesser Chaos have proper hosts designated to them, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> to use.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wanted to protest that I couldn’t exactly go traveling across the world in search of people, and even if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I had no idea how to sense who a host was or who they were a host </span>
  <em>
    <span>for</span>
  </em>
  <span>. But Tartarus just kept on talking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The hardest part will probably be getting Original Khaos to split up again. But you’re the strongest medium in existence at the moment, so I’m sure you can just </span>
  <em>
    <span>rip</span>
  </em>
  <span> them apart…or something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh so it’s just </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> easy?” I muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>know!</span>
  </em>
  <span> You puny, pitiful humans are sometimes </span>
  <em>
    <span>unpredictable!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he snapped. The aura throughout the room flared and I felt like the air pressure was nearly crushing me. He sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Clearly self-control was not something he was used to. Then again, a physical </span>
  <em>
    <span>body</span>
  </em>
  <span> was something he’d just recently acquired. “But Order and Lesser Chaos blessed you, gave you permission to move them from the vessels you have made contact with. It works even across great distances - as you saw before when you kept pulling Order and Lesser Chaos from my grasp and their hosts along with them. You just need to do that but </span>
  <em>
    <span>properly</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Properly?</span>
  </em>
  <span> What’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> supposed to mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just </span>
  <em>
    <span>fix</span>
  </em>
  <span> this! I don’t like being imprisoned in this…</span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but if my parents end up going insane and Original Khaos decides that existence needs to end, I won’t even be able to return to my Pit one day. I’m a patient creature, but if I won’t even be able to wait this curse out, then I’m going to go </span>
  <em>
    <span>mad</span>
  </em>
  <span>. You’ve not the </span>
  <em>
    <span>concept</span>
  </em>
  <span> of how </span>
  <em>
    <span>humiliating</span>
  </em>
  <span> it is to be trapped and asking for your puny mortal aid - worse, </span>
  <em>
    <span>saving</span>
  </em>
  <span> your world along with my own!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gee, thanks…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I probably should feel more scared than I was, speaking in general to Tartarus himself, but somehow, the more he talked the more…</span>
  <em>
    <span>human</span>
  </em>
  <span> he felt. He had ancient evil wisdom or whatever, but at the moment he felt more rational and sane than many creatures I’d faced within the past few years. Maybe it was him being imprisoned and away from the actual Pit of Tartarus itself, but whatever this host system was, it seemed to put the consciousness - the human part - of the deities into their hosts to give them a…well, a human experience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gods and monsters and deities and whatever weren’t human for a reason; in exchange for power, they weren’t able to evolve or change that much to use that power in unique or advanced ways. Some might find being weakened but being human a curse, others might find it interesting and even </span>
  <em>
    <span>useful</span>
  </em>
  <span> to basically become an advanced demigod. Sure, they seemingly had to compromise with their host human at times, but who knows? Maybe to some it was worth it - like Order and Lesser Chaos, who seemed so above everything else and needed an excuse to have fun as humans. These days, I’d imagine that the gods like excuses to be able to mingle with mortals without worrying about those laws that prevent them from interfering in mortal affairs. Those laws were in place so they don’t alter the course of fate and whatever, but from what I’ve seen of the gods, they enjoy mortals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus looked like he was ready to continue ranting, but then the pipes exploded. The bathtub, the sink, and the toilet all blew, water overflowing from all directions. The tub, which was already full, went off like a bomb had been thrown in it. I heard the hull rumble as more pipes from the other cabins burst and sinks overflowed, sending water down the gangway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tartarus’s wards fell, Veon’s aura returned to normal, and he looked startled like he’d just woken up to the water blast. A moment later, the water all came to a halt and began to flow back into the pipes, so I assumed that one of the Poseidon kids had broken the pipes and the other was trying to fix it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We rushed out into the hall to find Leo sprinting away waving a wrench. “Man, did you </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to destroy the plumbing?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m freezing the damaged parts!” Audrey announced. “Leo, I’m gonna need some welding from you! This way!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two of them rushed about the ship trying to contain the disaster. I guess that answers who was destroying and who was fixing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We hurried down the hall and found Percy speaking to Annabeth and Piper. I could feel his disturbance and panic throughout the ship, affecting the water within the vicinity. He probably hadn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>meant</span>
  </em>
  <span> to cause so much damage, but his glowering expression showed he didn’t like what he’d heard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> are you three going down here alone,” Percy was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll be all right,” Annabeth told him. “Piper foresaw the three of us going down there, so that’s what needs to happen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy glared at Piper like it was all her fault. “And this Mimas dude? I’m guessing he’s a giant?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably,” she said. “Porphyrion called him ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>our brother</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And a bronze statue surrounded by fire. And those…other things you mentioned. Mackies?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Makhai,” Piper corrected. “I think the word means ‘battles’ in Greek, but I don’t know how that applies, exactly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s my </span>
  <em>
    <span>point!</span>
  </em>
  <span> We don’t know what’s down there. I’m going with you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Annabeth put her hand on his arm. “If the giants want our blood, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>last</span>
  </em>
  <span> thing we need is a boy and a girl going down there together. Remember? They want one of each for their big sacrifice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Plus, you and Annabeth are a bit infamous for your heroic deeds,” I pointed out. “If the giants wanted </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> of us, it would be you two in particular.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I’ll get Jason,” Percy said. “Maybe Veon will come too. And the three of us-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seaweed Brain, are you implying that three </span>
  <em>
    <span>boys</span>
  </em>
  <span> can handle this better than three </span>
  <em>
    <span>girls?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I mean…no. But-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth kissed him. “We’ll be back before you know it. You two ready?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper and I nodded. I had gotten prepared before Veon had pulled me aside - it wasn’t really difficult to get ready considering that I already wore my Hearth of Hestia and my Dove of Aphrodite and the most that I had was a dagger and a cuff from Rei that could turn into a shield. Beyond that, my voice and my emotional powers were all internal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, I’m no expert, but I don’t think that’s supposed to happen,” Rei announced. She came peeking out of Kaze’s room as the blur himself dashed up the deck with something wet in his hands and then a moment later dashed back into his room seemingly having dried it through his sheer speed and the wind alone. “Audrey! Little help here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m coming!” she shouted. She was gliding through the halls with her feet made of water clearing out the rooms of water and freezing things so that Leo could fix them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Veon, we’re gonna need some tar powers please,” Rei said. Kaze shouted something from behind her. “And Percy? Please stop trying to drown the ship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay Percy, remember when I said we should teach you how to boil and freeze water?” Audrey announced. “Time to learn to freeze water. Come on. I know you’re free until Annabeth and the others get back.” She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away. He glanced back at Annabeth as she headed up the stairs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have fun, Seaweed Brain,” she said. “We’ll be back before you know it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper and I hurried after Annabeth before the whole lower deck could flood with toilet water.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>An hour later, the three of us stood on a hill overlooking the ruins of Ancient Sparta.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We’d already scouted the modern city, which, strangely, reminded Piper of Albuquerque - a bunch of low, boxy, whitewashed buildings sprawled across a plain at the foot of some purplish mountains. Annabeth had insisted on checking the archaeology museum, then the giant metal statue of the Spartan warrior in the public square, then the National Museum of Olives and Olive Oil (yes, that was a real thing). We’d learned more about olive oil than we’d ever wanted to know, but no giants attacked us and we found no statues of chained gods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth seemed reluctant to check the ruins on the edge of town, but finally we ran out of other places to look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There wasn’t much to see. According to Annabeth, the hill we stood on had once been Sparta’s acropolis - its highest point and main fortress - but it was nothing like the massic Athenian acropolis that Piper had seen in her dreams.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, and Piper had dreamt about the Athenian acropolis and how the giants had gathered there, aware of our progress but seemingly unworried about it since we were doing what they had predicted. A giant named Mimas was supposed to be here? I’d hadn’t had time to ask Audrey or Rei about it, which god Mimas was supposed to oppose. Knowing that would probably help us a lot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The weathered slope was covered with dead grass, rocks, and stunted olive trees. Below, ruins stretched out for maybe a quarter mile: limestone blocks, a few broken walls, and some tiled holes in the ground like wells.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper thought about her dad’s most famous movie, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>King of Sparta</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ and how the Spartans were portrayed as invincible supermen. She found it sad that their legacy had been reduced to a field of rubble and a small modern town with an olive oil museum.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wiped the sweat from her forehead. “You’d think if there was a thirty-foot-tall giant around, we’d see him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Best way for a giant to hide is usually underground…” I speculated. “We might’ve wanted to bring Hazel for some underground action. But Piper’s vision didn’t show it, so we must be able to figure it out ourselves…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth stared at the distant shape of the Argo II floating above downtown Sparta. She fingered the red coral pendant on her necklace - a gift from Percy when they started dating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re thinking about Percy,” Piper guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth nodded. Since she’d come back from Tartarus, Annabeth had told us a lot of scary things that had happened down there. At the top of her list: Percy controlling a tide of poison and suffocating the goddess Akhlys.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He seems to be adjusting,” Piper said. “He’s smiling more often. You know he cares about you more than ever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth sat, her face suddenly pale. “I don’t know why it’s hitting me so hard all of a sudden. I can’t quite get that memory out of my head…how Percy looked when he was standing at the edge of Chaos. It’s one thing to think that maybe one of our friends is being possessed by Chaos; it’s another to see the true overwhelming force of it. Only a small portion of Chaos can even take on a host. I’d once thought that the cavern leading down the Tartarus was the worst thing I could ever fall into. But just being </span>
  <em>
    <span>near</span>
  </em>
  <span> that pit…I dunno, maybe it just worsened the experience even more, etched the worst parts of it into my brain forever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sat beside Annabeth, brushing my hand against her arm to try and send her soothing waves of comfort. I knew how much Annabeth had gone through during her journey through Tartarus. I’d only been down there for one short encounter but seeing Tartarus alone had been nerve-wracking. The heavy, poisonous air, the sense of terror and horror that radiated through my every being, the screams of suffering souls. And then I’d had to dive into Tartarus himself, trying to save my friends, and walking into the terrible nothingness that was the edge of even Chaos - not just Chaos, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Original</span>
  </em>
  <span> Khaos. The memories themselves were still hazy, but there was no forgetting the horrible dread that went through me when I looked back there. It was almost like my soul itself wanted to deny those memories, of having ever gone there, having ever had to deal with that place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason had confessed that when he had seen his mother back in Ithaca, he had admittedly just wanted to close his eyes and stop fighting. The strain was getting to us all, I could tell. After all we’d been through, after all that people like </span>
  <em>
    <span>Jason</span>
  </em>
  <span> had gone through, it was understandable that we all felt like we just needed a break.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All demigods had their share of bad spirits inside; fatal flaws. Some crises brought them out, some lines shouldn’t be crossed. Jason had been an infant when he’d been taken in by wolves and taught to fight; he’d spent his days in Camp Jupiter and made his way up to a praetor before he was even 16; he had the burden of being a son of Jupiter and expected to be a natural leader, but he’d never had a real connection with his parents. He’d been pushed his whole life; I wondered if he’d ever </span>
  <em>
    <span>truly</span>
  </em>
  <span> gotten a chance to relax.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then there was Percy. The guy had literally been through hell and back, and that was after surviving a prophecy and a war </span>
  <em>
    <span>before</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hera had taken his memories and thrust him into a new challenge. Even when he wasn’t trying, he made the toilets explode. What would Percy be like if he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to act scary? If he just gave in to his anger, his fatigue at dealing with all this crap, and just fought his hardest for what he wanted?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loyalty was a fatal flaw, no matter what people said. Darth Vader became what he was because of loyalty - choosing his loved ones and what </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> believed was right over all else. I couldn’t see Percy becoming a Sith or anything of course, but Percy </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> been pushed to his limit. He’d been fighting two wars and was barely old enough to be in high school. I wished that I could give him - and the rest of the crew, of course, but Percy especially - the break that they really needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give him time,” Piper said. She sat opposite of me beside Annabeth. “The guy is crazy about you. You’ve been through so much together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know…” Annabeth’s gray eyes reflected the green of the olive trees. “It’s just…Bob the Titan, he warned me there would be more sacrifices ahead. I want to believe we can have a normal life someday…But I allowed myself to hope for that last summer, after the Titan War. Then Percy disappeared for </span>
  <em>
    <span>months</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Then we fell into that pit…” A tear traced its way down her cheek. “Piper, if you’d seen the face of the god Tartarus - in his truest form, in his domain - all swirling darkness, devouring monsters and vaporizing them…I’ve never felt so </span>
  <em>
    <span>helpless</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I try not to think about it…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hands were trembling badly. Piper and I each took one, but I could feel her pain as if it were cutting through me personally. It was like the air itself was heavy with the dread of the past and the future building up all at once. I needed to take a deep breath to keep myself calm, then push the feelings of serenity through Annabeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knew there were ways to shut down an entire person’s emotions. I knew it was possible, the option looming over me at every turn. Where once I might’ve had to strain to do such a thing, it had become easier and easier to just…flick a switch and turn someone off. It scared me how easily I knew I could do it - put a stop to the crew’s fears and turn them into warriors of calm, collected wrath. Or I could make them empty slates. I could take away their concern, their trauma, and make us march straight into danger without a hint of regret. And that scared me, how simple it would be - and how tempting it was. Even just for a moment, I could stop the pain for everyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But I didn’t. I limited myself. I held back. I was too afraid to go much further than I did. I calmed people down in temporary bursts, never sustaining the feeling and merely acting as a kind of painkiller that wore off. That was how it </span>
  <em>
    <span>should</span>
  </em>
  <span> be. Emotions made a person who they were, and it would be human emotions that drove us to win this war. It would be fear that kept us cautious and caution that kept us alive. It would be trauma that made us stronger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That didn’t make it any nicer to know the suffering we’d gone through, and how much I wanted to make it all stop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I thought back to Tartarus’s conversation earlier. Even something as vast and incomprehensible as Tartarus was now at the mercy of this Original Khaos. Original Khaos could end up bringing the end of the world if we - if </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> - didn’t do something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But what was I supposed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>do?</span>
  </em>
  <span> I had no instructions beyond ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>just do what you did before only better</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ Yeah, thanks for that one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Honestly, I was afraid to poke the bear that was the beings within Rei. She was my friend. After we made it back from Tartarus, from the Primordial trials, I could hardly predict her anymore. Sometimes she was unreadable, no emotions, no feelings, no…being. Other times she seemed like just a normal girl. If I tried to pull apart her Primordials, it was likely that I’d only have one chance; they’d be ready for if I tried a second time. Meaning I needed to find another host in the meantime.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But I didn’t have the resources nor the </span>
  <em>
    <span>time!</span>
  </em>
  <span> It took Rei </span>
  <em>
    <span>ages</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be made into the ‘perfect host’ that she was. Even Veon had been given many boons to speed up the process…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And that was the Primordials </span>
  <em>
    <span>knowing</span>
  </em>
  <span> who they needed. I had no idea how to track down hosts or train them to be strong enough or do those trial thingies to refine their souls to be compatible and to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>strong</span>
  </em>
  <span> enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. The stress was even getting to </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth, we’ve </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> felt helpless,” I said. “Against Tartarus, in his own domain, </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span> would be overwhelmed. The fact is, you made it out. You have a chance to finish this war, and you’ll get your happy ending.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper remembered her first day at Camp Half-Blood, when Annabeth had given her a tour. Annabeth had been shaken up about Percy’s disappearance, and though Piper was pretty disoriented and scared herself, comforting Annabeth had made her feel needed, like she might actually have a place among these crazy-powerful demigods. Annabeth Chase was the bravest person she knew. If even </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> needed a shoulder to cry on once in a while…well, Piper was glad to offer hers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, don’t try to shut out the feelings,” Piper said gently. “You won’t be able to. Just let them wash over you and drain out again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Turning off your emotions doesn’t make anything better,” I agreed. “Believe me, I’ve shut down people completely before with my power. It can be even more terrifying than any mental breakdown. Living with your emotions and confronting them on your own is the only way to turn that pain into your own strength. You’d be surprised how much more liberating a good cry can be than anything that I can manage with my powers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper smiled. “No power out there can help like you helping yourself. You’re scared, yes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gods, yes, I’m scared,” Annabeth said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re angry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At Percy for frightening me. At my mom for sending me on that horrible quest in Rome. At…well, pretty much everybody. Gaea. The giants. The gods for being jerks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At us?” Piper asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth managed a shaky laugh. “Yes, for being so annoyingly calm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh Annie, you must know it’s all a lie,” I said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And for being such good friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha,” Piper chuckled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And for having your heads on straight about guys and relationships and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, have you </span>
  <em>
    <span>met</span>
  </em>
  <span> me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not even </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> a relationship,” I pointed out. “I guess that </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> mean I have a solid handle on my relationship though - its nonexistence, anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth shoved us both away, but there was no force to it. “I’m stupid, sitting here talking about my feelings when we have a quest to finish.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “There’s no better time to talk about your feelings than the boring wait for something interesting to happen on a quest. I mean, imagine talking about your feelings in a normal setting, am I right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The chained god’s heartbeat can wait,” Piper insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper tried for a smile, but her own fears were welling up inside her - for Jason and her friends on the Argo II, for herself, if she wasn’t able to do what Aphrodite had advised. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>In the end, you will only have the power for one word. It must be the right word, or you will lose everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ No pressure or anything, huh Mom?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever happens,” she told Annabeth, “I’m your friend. Just…remember that, okay?” ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Especially if I’m not around to remind you</em>
  </b>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I took both of their hands and pulled them into a circle. “Right then, no more doom and gloom. I think it’s time for your regularly scheduled comfort time. We’re all going to make it out of this, we’re gonna kick a Primordial goddess in the face to get back our normal lives and dammit if stopping a freaking earth goddess doesn’t tell the monsters and world-ending threats to shove off then I don’t know what </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span>. We’ll knock the boys on the heads for being idiots at times but we’ll all live happily ever after. Got it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sweeping aside their negative thoughts like I was running a stream of water over their mucky auras to cleanse them, the two of them started to relax. I pushed their negative auras outwards and dissipated them across the ruins around us - in a metaphorical sense, anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was going to go on, but suddenly a roaring sound came from the ruins. One of the stone-lined pits, which we had mistaken for wells, spewed out a three-story geyser of flames and shut off just as quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the heck?” Piper asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth sighed and I could feel her weariness return. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling it’s something we should check out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A lead!” I encouraged.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. From Both War and Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Spoiler alert: Famine has a POV in this chapter, but I decided she should remain in third person because I really don’t want to actually put a reader into her head, nor Lust’s, and Hatter wouldn’t work properly because of the context of the scene I planned. Where once my stories were consistently first person, now we’re getting into so much third person territory.</p><p>Third part of a triple update, so if the alert system messes up or gets disorganized or something (which doesn't always happen but still does at times) then go back and read the other chapters before this.</p><p>Man these are all super long, but again, I swear I was writing this story, I just found nothing in the former chapters worth posting on their own. I was trying to get ahead, and then just kinda fell behind.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three pits lay side by side like finger holes on a recorder. Each one was perfectly round, two feet in diameter, tiled around the rim with limestone; each one plunged straight into darkness. Every few seconds, seemingly at random, one of the three pits shot a column of fire into the sky. Each time, the color and intensity of the flames were different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They weren’t doing this before.” Annabeth walked a wide arc around the pits. She still looked shaky and pale, but her mind was now obviously engaged in the problem at hand. “There doesn’t seem to be any pattern. The timing, the color, the height of the fire…I don’t get it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did we activate them somehow?” Piper wondered. “Maybe that surge of fear you felt on the hill…uh, I mean we </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> felt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sat down in front of one of the wells. Piper had a point. That mucky aura that seemed to pervade the area wasn’t just our fears getting to us. There was actually something coming from somewhere in the ruins. I’d predicted that if there were a giant, it was probably underground somehow. Maybe these wells led somewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth didn’t seem to hear her. “There must be some kind of mechanism…a pressure plate, a proximity alarm.” Flames shot from the middle pit. Annabeth counted silently. The next time, a geyser erupted on the left. She frowned. “That’s not right. It’s inconsistent. It has to follow some kind of logic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> a pattern,” I said. “You should be able to feel it, Annabeth. Or maybe I can because of my powers…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What pattern?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Each time one of the pits ignited, a horrible thrill went through me - fear, panic, but also a strong desire to get closer to the flames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It isn’t rational,” Piper realized. “It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>emotional.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How can fire pits be emotional?” Annabeth asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are a lot of things we’ve had to just accept in our demigod lives,” I sighed. “Why not emotional fire?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper held her hand over the pit on the right. Instantly, flames leaped up. Piper barely had time to withdraw her fingers. Her nails steamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper!” Annabeth ran over. “What were you </span>
  <em>
    <span>thinking?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wasn’t. I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>feeling</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held my hand over the fire pit and concentrated. A pillar of light green light came up. The flame tickled my arm, but I didn’t feel pain - not </span>
  <em>
    <span>physical</span>
  </em>
  <span> pain, anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sadness. The kind of sadness that drew a river of tears from your eyes and drowned your lungs with sorrow so that you felt you couldn’t breathe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sucked in a deep breath and then pushed my power over the fiery pit. I thought about Audrey and her aura when she was freezing water - calming, slowing down the molecules within the liquid and pulling them together. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Stop</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flames turned a deep shade of royal blue and then slowly began to fall back down into the well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What we want is down there. These pits are the way in,” I declared. “I’ll have to jump.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, Emily!” Annabeth looked warily at the well. “Even if you don’t get stuck in the tube, you have no idea how deep it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re right. But I’m small, and I can heal and turn to fire if necessary, right?” Not that I’d actually mastered that technique yet beyond in the heat of battle, but let’s not focus on that right now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Beyond anything else, I could keep myself calm if things went wrong. Keeping calm even under duress, pain, stress, etc. was the key to surviving any situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll send a flare if something goes wrong. I can manipulate the color of the fire if I concentrate hard enough. I’ll make all the flames…purple if I’m in danger and you should go get help. I’ll make all the flames blue if we’re good to go. The fire pits have no pattern, right? So once you see a pattern, that’ll probably be me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, Emily-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I jumped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, I was weightless in the dark, the sides of the hot stone pit tickling my arms. Then the space opened up around me. Instinctively I tucked and rolled, absorbing most of the impact as I hit a stone floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Flames shot up in front of me and I flinched from the sudden brightness up so close. I backed away and realized the flames were coming from three bronze dragon statues that stood in a row, aligned with the holes in the roof. Each were three feet tall, their snouts pointed upwards and their steaming mouths open. They were clearly the source of the flames, but they didn’t seem to be automatons - they didn’t move or try to attack me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I knelt in front of the left dragonhead, reaching out to carefully touch it. It reminded me of Festus, except rather than Leo’s mechanical dragon being cheerful and alive (reflecting a lot of Leo’s personality because Leo was the one who had built him and indirectly influenced Festus’s personality once he was brought to life) these dragons were filled with…negative emotions. Erratic and unstoppably irrational. And painful, like the misery of weeks, months, </span>
  <em>
    <span>years</span>
  </em>
  <span> of hard work going to waste.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flames weren’t the same as the Flame of Life that had woken Festus, but it seemed to work similarly. The dragons blew fire that reflected emotions. I stuck my hand inside the mouth of the dragon, trying to keep my instincts from kicking in and telling me that I was sticking my hand inside a living dragon’s mouth and suffocating it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’d always wanted to be a vet, but this was not exactly what I had in mind. Still, if I wanted to be a vet, sticking my hand down the gullet of a mechanical dragon shouldn’t be my biggest challenge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I finally fingered something. Within the pipe that spewed fire, rather than some kind of mechanical mechanism, there was a stone. About the size of a golf ball, it felt smooth but cut at many angles like a gemstone. It was held in a cradle that clearly connected it to the dragon, but it didn’t feel so secure that it’d be hard to just pop out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had to endure a couple blasts of fire - which seemed to be growing more frantic as I finally got a grip on the stone - but I managed to pry it from the mechanism holding it and pull it free.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah ha!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like a golf-ball shaped diamond, just instead of dipples it was just flat like a polyhedron. Upon removing it from the dragonhead, it turned transparent like glass, but I could sense it was emotion-based and it had a pretty wide radius. I fed a light bit of contentment into it from having successfully pulled it free and it shot out a pink bast of fire in all directions without the dragonhead to contain it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emily?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth’s voice echoed from far above like she was yelling down a chimney.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pulled in the fire of the gem, taking in a deep breath and pulling it back like wrangling an excited puppy. The fire returned to the stone, though it still remained pink. I concentrated on the cool aura of calmness from before and managed to get it to turn dark blue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right! </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now</span>
  </em>
  <span> we’re getting somewhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held the gem up to the hole in the ceiling above and ordered it to fire off a plume of its colored fire straight upwards rather than in an uncontrolled direction. It seemed to have a life of its own, and like an unruly child, it wanted to resist and go where it pleased. However, I grit my teeth and ordered it to just do as I said. I’d dealt with animals and children alike in the past, so it wasn’t hard to muster the willpower to keep it in check.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, the gem reacted to the determination and shifted from a dark, royal blue to a pulsing deep purple by the time it shot through the hole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oops.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I contained the gem’s fire again. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> sensitive, even for me - and I’d been learning to try and control emotions for a while now. I’d gotten good, if I do say so myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A sword clattered down into the cavern from the hole on the right, and I had enough time to be surprised (the gem shifting to warmer red colors in my hand) and notice that it was Piper’s sword before she came plummeting through the central well. Flames shot up in front of her, singeing her eyebrows, but Piper snatched up her sword, unsheathed it, and swung before she’d even rolled to a stop. A bronze dragonhead, neatly decapitated, wobbled across the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper! You could’ve been burnt to a crisp!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe,” she admitted calmly. “But here I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed, but she was right. I walked over to the decapitated dragon and reached inside, pulling out the small emotion-stone. It was just as active as the first, and the two seemed to have a conversation with each other, and it was giving me a headache just holding them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper looked down at the fallen dragonhead and felt a moment of guilt, as if she’d killed Festus. But these things weren’t Festus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I explained the situation to her, and she said that Annabeth was worrying her head off. When the mauve spout had blasted up out of the well, she’d decided that was a warning enough, but rather than do something rational, Piper decided that the best course of action was to follow after me - trusting her gut more than Annabeth did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper calmly sliced off the head of the final dragon and I retrieved its stone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…what exactly do these do?” Piper wondered. “Beyond giving me an emotional headache, of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“These things are erratic. We need a way to contain their power.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or we could try smashing them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And risk all this emotional fire bursting free? You can </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> it, can’t you Piper? Who </span>
  <em>
    <span>knows</span>
  </em>
  <span> how much damage these things could do? And it might not stop at just a single fire blast explosion if one was broken.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper glanced up at the well high above. “They had more than enough fire-power already…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should consult the others. For now, I’ll try to keep them in control while we search. Who knows? They might come in handy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe they like you. Ya know, emotion power, fire…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “They seem more like unruly children at the moment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emily? Piper?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! We’re fine!” Piper called back up to Annabeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank the gods!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on a sec!” Piper scanned the room, her eyes adjusting to the dark. I’d been so distracted with the bronze dragons that I hadn’t even taken a proper look around - and it hadn’t helped that the fire blasts had prevented my eyes from growing fully accustomed to the darkness. Thank goodness Kaze had helped upgrade my glasses to be heat-proof or else the glass definitely would’ve melted away with all the fire blasts I’d taken to the face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only light came from Piper’s glowing blade, the pits above, and the three multi-colored gems in my hand. The ceiling was about thirty feet high. By all rights, Piper should’ve broken both legs in the fall, but she wasn’t going to complain. The chamber itself was round, about the size of a helicopter pad, and the walls were made of rough-hewn stone blocks chiseled with Greek inscriptions - thousands and thousands of them, like graffiti. At the far end of the room, on a stone dais, stood the human-sized bronze statue of a warrior - the god Ares - with heavy bronze chains wrapped around his body, anchoring him to the floor. On either side of the statue loomed two dark doorways, each ten feet high, with a gruesome stone face carved over the archway. The faces reminded me of gorgons, except they had lions’ manes instead of snakes for hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth!” Piper called. “It’s a long drop, but it’s safe to come down. Maybe…uh, you have a rope you could fasten so we can get back up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few minutes later a rope dropped from the center pit. Annabeth shinnied down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper McLean,” she grumbled, “that was without a doubt the </span>
  <em>
    <span>dumbest</span>
  </em>
  <span> risk I’ve ever seen anyone take - and I </span>
  <em>
    <span>date</span>
  </em>
  <span> a dumb risk-taker.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nudged the nearest decapitated dragonhead with my foot. “I’m guessing these are the dragons of Ares. That’s one of his sacred animals, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And there’s the chained god himself.” Annabeth stared at the chained statue. “Where do you think those doorways-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper held up her hand. “Do you hear that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sound was like a drumbeat…with a metallic echo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Footsteps?” I guessed. “Or…or a heartbeat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s coming from inside the statue,” Piper decided. “The heartbeat of the chained god.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth unsheathed her dragon-bone sword. In the dim light, her face was ghostly pale, her eyes colorless. “I…I don’t like this. We need to leave.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rational part of me agreed. My skin crawled, my legs ached to run. The stones in my hand pulse with a sickly yellow-green glow. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fear</span>
  </em>
  <span>. They were reflecting the emotions being forced through this whole area. The feeling that I’d gotten from up on the surface…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This shrine is ramping up our emotions,” I said. “It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>built</span>
  </em>
  <span> upon emotion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s like being around my mom,” Piper agreed. “Except this place radiates fear, not life. That’s why you started feeling overwhelming on the hill. Down here, it’s a thousand times stronger.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth scanned the walls. “Okay…we need a plan to get the statue out. Maybe haul it up with the rope, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait.” Piper glanced at the snarling stone faces above the doorways. “A shrine that radiates fear. Ares had two divine sons, didn’t he?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ph-Phobos and Deimos.” Annabeth shivered. “Panic and Fear. Percy met them once in Staten Island.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper decided not to ask what the twin gods of panic and fear had been doing in Staten Island. “I think those are their faces above the doors.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Meaning this place isn’t just a shrine to Ares,” I realized. “It’s a temple of fear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Deep laughter echoed through the chamber.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The stones in my hand began to pulse. ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Fear it</em>
  </b>
  <span>,’ they seemed to say. ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Fear him</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To our right, a giant appeared. He didn’t come through either doorway. He simply emerged from the darkness as if he’d been camouflaged against the wall. He was small for a giant - perhaps twenty feet tall, which would give him enough room to swing the massive sledgehammer in his hands. His armor, his skin, and his dragon-scaled legs were all the color of charcoal. Copper wires and smashed circuit boards glittered in the braids of his oil-black hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Very good, children of Aphrodite.” The giant smiled. “This is indeed the Temple of Fear. And I am here to make you believers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Waves of terror crashed over the area and my entire body was paralyzed from fear. This was different than normal fear, it was every worst fear I’d ever had forcefully locking my joints and stopping my heart. Paralyzed, the three of us had to watch as the giant raised his sledgehammer to smash up flat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My worst nightmares of hurting other people, shutting down everything that made my friends who they were and leaving nothing but emptiness. There was no way to put into words how horrible it felt, as if that were the reality set before me: unable to stop feeling everything that others were and being unable to stop knocking people’s very personalities out of alignment as if I were some sort of god who decided such things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei had told me once, that she had taken an oath on the Styx never to use a bow again, and she had broken that oath. Her punishment was the Curses - the worst thing for her was knowing that she could choose her fate; the worst thing for her was knowing that she had a choice and she could make the wrong one. She could break through prophecies, forge her own path, but that left open the opportunity for failure. Prophecies sucked, but they were in place to help the gods and demigods stop terrible things from happening. Following a prophecy was a way to guarantee that the future would happen, but if you could shatter prophecies and defy fate, then you’d never know if you’d succeed or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sometimes, fearing the power you had to choose a fate was overwhelming. It was crushing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The memory of fully shutting down Leo and Jason for the first time when they were under the control of Medea hit me. For the first time I realized just how much I could hurt people by rejecting all the fear and hatred and pain that burdened people. I’d always tried to remain a positive person, but as I got stronger and stronger I started to fear that my own emotions weren’t mine - just a reflection of everyone else around me - or that I was influencing people without meaning to and forcing my beliefs upon others. What if I couldn’t exist without being influenced by others or influencing others. What if I couldn’t turn it off? What if it became volatile or erased identities - that of others, or that of my very own?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Touching the very concept of infinity with the Primordials washed over me. Tartarus had said that I was not a host, just a medium. I couldn’t handle the burden of holding even a fraction of them within me for long. But I followed my friends through their trials, I fought and for once I’d felt hopeless and too weak to do anything…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emotions fluctuated up and down through my core, and on top of that, I could feel both Piper and Annabeth’s worst memories crowding their minds as well. The emotional gems gripped tightly in my hand flared every color all at once and my entire body was set ablaze with their blinding lights. The horror and terror and pain and panic that ripped through took form in the strobe lights that would’ve made an excellent addition to a dance party had the situation not been so overwhelmingly atrocious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sucked in deep breaths from my nose and tried to focus. Before all this stupid questing and fearing for my life, the way that I had dealt with stress and fear had always been the same: internalize it. There was no way to stop the anxiety of a bad situation, so all I had ever been able to do was accept it as a part of myself and just dive in head-first. It worked with taking an important test back in school - now I just needed to do that but with a lot higher stakes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I screamed and let out a stream of the multi-colored fire, but instead of letting it go every which way, I directed it straight at the giant raising his hammer, poised to kill us. My fire had never hurt anyone before, it hadn’t burnt like this. Leo had shot waves of flame that could melt monsters and metal, but what I needed wasn’t damage - I needed to blind the giant with a wave of the emotions that coursed through me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t just fear I had now - it was everything. Determination, hatred, love for my friends, sadness, anxiety and worry; and yes, there was fear. There was plenty of fear. And I took pride in that. Fear kept you alive, it was your most valuable resource.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took everything I had to take the swirling chaos of emotions and contain it, forcing it to go in the direction I wanted, but I would not take no for an answer. I would let these emotions become my strength. I blasted the giant right in his stupid face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant staggered and cried out in surprise, and Piper managed to tackle us both out of the way as the sledgehammer came down blindly. The hammer cracked the floor, peppering us with stone shrapnel, but we had made it out alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, that wasn’t fair!” The giant hefted his sledgehammer again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth, get up!” Piper helped her to her feet while I pushed myself up through sheer willpower alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emotions were exhausting. Something like a sorrow so great that you cried yourself to exhaustion, a rage so powerful that you defied all rationality and broke and hurt things that you cared about, a love so great that the fear of anything that might take it away consumes you. I wouldn’t be able to hold onto this power for long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper pulled Annabeth as we ran to the far end of the room, but Annabeth moved sluggishly, her eyes wide and unfocused. The temple was amplifying out personal fear. We’d seen some horrible things, but Annabeth had trekked through the whole of Tartarus, each moment fearing that she and Percy would meet a horrible end. She’d swam in a river of lamentation, faced curses of fear and blindness and being abandoned, she’d stood at the precipice of the source of Chaos, she’d faced all of Nyx and her children at once, and she’d walked through an army of monsters waiting at the Doors of Death. She’d stared into the face of Tartarus, lost her friends, and nearly died on multiple occasions before we’d even met her. If all of her terrible past was compounded together, her bad memories might just break her mind. She might literally go insane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re here,” Piper promised, filling her voice with reassurance. “We </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> get out of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant laughed. “A child of Aphrodite leading a child of Athena! Now I’ve seen everything. How would you defeat me, girl? With makeup and fashion tips?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few months ago, that comment might’ve stung, but Piper was way past that. The giant lumbered towards us. Fortunately, he was slow and carrying a heavy hammer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth, trust me,” Piper said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A…a plan,” she stammered. “I go left, you go right, Emily distracts him head-on. If we-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth, no plans,” I declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>No</span>
  </em>
  <span> plans,” Piper agreed. “Just follow me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant swung his hammer, but we dodged it easily. I blasted the giant with my powered-up fire and Piper leaped forward to slash her sword across the back of the giant’s knee. As the giant bellowed in outrage, we pulled Annabeth into the nearest tunnel. Immediately, we were engulfed in total darkness. Even my multicolored flames were snuffed out, as if light itself couldn’t exist while we were in here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fools!” the giant roared somewhere behind us. “That is the wrong way!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Keep moving,” I urged. Piper and I each held onto Annabeth’s hands. “It’s fine. Come on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>None of us could see anything, but I could still feel the surge of overwhelming emotion pulsing through me. It was terrifyingly strong, threatening to tear me apart from the inside, but at the same time, it comforted me. Feeling meant I was alive, that what was happening in front of me was real.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Turn your fears into your strength</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei had once recommended that to me back in high school before one of our choir concerts. Granted, she had been talking about the butterflies in your stomach helping tighten your core so that you could sing properly with the right support, but I internalized it as a metaphor for now. Our director had said that you never stop having stage fright; you just learn to be comfortable being afraid. If that didn’t apply to the questing demigod life, then I don’t know what did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper and I barreled ahead, dragging Annabeth along with us and trusting our emotions to guide us, no matter how overwhelming they might seem. From the echo of our footfalls, the space around us must have been a vast cavern, but we couldn’t be sure. We simply went in the direction that made our fears the sharpest. I let the fear tighten my core and make me stronger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s like the House of Night,” Annabeth said. “We should close our eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Piper said. “Keep them open. We can’t try to hide.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant’s voice came from somewhere in front of us. “Lost forever. Swallowed by the darkness.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth froze, forcing both of us to a stop too. “Why did we just plunge in?!” she demanded. “We’re lost. We did what he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> us to! We should have bided our time, talked to the enemy, figured out a plan. That </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> works!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Annabeth, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> ignore your advice.” Piper kept her voice soothing. “But this time I have to. We can’t defeat this place with reason. You can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span> your way out of your emotions.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant’s laughter echoed like a detonating depth charge. “Despair, Annabeth Chase! I am Mimas, born to slay Hephaestus. I am the breaker of plans, the destroyer of the well-oiled machines. Nothing goes right in my presence. Maps are misread, devices break, data is lost, the finest minds turned to mush!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I…I’ve faced worse than you!” Annabeth cried.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I see!” The giant sounded much closer now. “Are you not afraid?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Never!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course we’re afraid!” I corrected. “Terrified!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The air moved. I dived and Piper pulled Annabeth to one side.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>CRASH!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly we were back in the circular room, the dim light almost blinding now. My multicolored flames had stopped burning, but my skin still glowed like a red-hot iron - except it was a rainbow of shifting lava. It didn’t hurt Annabeth, whose hand was still gripped within mine. The giant stood close by, trying to yank his hammer out of the floor where he’d embedded it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper lunged and drove her blade into the giant’s thigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AROOO!” Mimas let go of the hammer and arched his back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pulled both of them behind the chained statue of Ares, which still pulsed with a metallic heartbeat: </span>
  <em>
    <span>thump, thump, thump</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant Mimas turned towards us. The wound on his leg was already closing. “You cannot defeat me,” he growled. “In the last war, it took </span>
  <em>
    <span>two</span>
  </em>
  <span> gods to bring me down. I was born to kill Hephaestus, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> have done so if Ares hadn’t ganged up on me as well! You should have stayed paralyzed in your fear. Your death would’ve been quicker.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Days ago, when she faced Khione on the Argo II, Piper had started talking without thinking, following her heart no matter what her brain said. Now she did the same thing. She moved in front of the statue and faced the giant, though the ration part of her screamed: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>RUN YOU IDIOT!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This temple,” she said. “The Spartans didn’t chain Ares because they wanted his spirit to stay in their city.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think not?” The giant’s eyes glittered with amusement. He wrapped his hands around his sledgehammer and pulled it from the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is the temple of my brothers, Deimos and Phobos.” Piper’s voice shook, but she didn’t try to hide it. “The Spartans came here to prepare for battle, to face their fears. Ares was chained to remind them that war has consequences. His power - the spirits of battle, the makhai - should never be unleashed unless you understand how terrible they are, unless you’ve </span>
  <em>
    <span>felt</span>
  </em>
  <span> fear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mimas laughed. “A child of the love goddess lectures me about war. What do you know of the makhai?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll see.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper ran straight at the giant, unbalancing his stance. At the sight of her jagged blade coming at him, his eyes widened and he stumbled backwards, cracking his head against the wall. A jagged fissure snaked upwards in the stones. Dust rained from the ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper, this place is unstable!” Annabeth warned. “If we don’t leave-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t think about escape!” I shouted. I ran towards the rope and grabbed it, forcing my emotional flame through it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Fear. Fear being trapped.</em>
  </b>
  <span>’ The rope was set ablaze, the flame quickly traveling up the cavern’s height and turning the rope to ash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emily, have you lost your </span>
  <em>
    <span>mind?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably,” I admitted, throwing aside the ashen remains in my hand. But I knew this was the only way to survive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We had to go against reason, follow emotion instead, keep the giant off balance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I remembered back in high school when we’d been forced to take a gym class and play games with the far more athletic kids. It had been bad enough that we had some professional sports players in the same class as us, but they were big and strong and I was small, slow, and afraid of getting hit in any way. But Rei had told me that the best way to play the game was to go in knowing you’d lost and had nothing left to prove - just run in, do your best, expect to fail, and live with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Time for us to just live with what happened next.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That hurt!” Mimas rubbed his head. “You </span>
  <em>
    <span>realize</span>
  </em>
  <span> you cannot kill me without the help of a god, and Ares is not here! The next time I face that blustering idiot, I will smash him to bits. I wouldn’t have had to fight him in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>first</span>
  </em>
  <span> place if that cowardly fool Damasen had done his job-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth let loose a guttural cry. “Do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> insult Damasen!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I felt my burning emotional waves latch onto Annabeth, surrounding her in a lighter version of what I had. Instead of all her emotions, Annabeth was filled with just rage and despair and hatred. She ran at Mimas, who barely managed to parry her dragon-blade with the handle of his hammer. He tried to grab Annabeth, but I held up my hands and shot out another wave of flame at his face to blind him. Piper lunged, slashing her blade across the side of the giant’s face as he staggered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“GAHHH!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A severed pile of dreadlocks fell to the floor along with something else - a large, fleshy </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span> lying in a pool of golden ichor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My ear!” Mimas wailed. Before he could recover his wits, I grabbed both of them and plunged into the second doorway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper was running alongside me, and Annabeth was trying her best. She’d regained a bit of her strength, but it wasn’t enough. Rage and despair - pain - it was enough to help her, but she still needed to panic. She needed to accept her fears.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will bring down this chamber!” the giant thundered. “The Earth Mother shall deliver me, but you shall be crushed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The floor shook. The sound of breaking stone echoed all around us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper, Emily, wait,” Annabeth begged. “How - how are you dealing with this? The fear, the anger-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t try to control it,” Piper explained. “That’s what this temple is about. You have to accept the fear, adapt to it, ride it like the rapids on a river.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know it. I just feel it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s the whole </span>
  <em>
    <span>point</span>
  </em>
  <span> of Fear and Panic, Annabeth,” I agreed. “They’re not rational, but they are </span>
  <em>
    <span>strengths</span>
  </em>
  <span>. You have to accept them same as you accept bravery, courage, and love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere nearby, a wall crumbled with a sound like an artillery blast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You burnt the rope,” Annabeth said. “We’re going to die down here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper cupped her friend’s face. She pulled Annabeth forward until their foreheads touched. Through our interconnected hands, I could feel Annabeth’s rapid pulse. “Fear can’t be reasoned with. Neither can hate. They’re like love. They’re almost </span>
  <em>
    <span>identical</span>
  </em>
  <span> emotions. That’s why Ares and Aphrodite like each other. Their twin sons - Fear and Panic - were spawned from both war and love.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I don’t…this doesn’t make sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” I agreed. “But it doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> to. Stop thinking about it. Just </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span> that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know. You can’t plan for things. Like with Percy and your future - you can’t control every contingency. You have to accept that. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Let</span>
  </em>
  <span> it scare you, Annabeth. Trust that it’ll be okay anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then for right now,” Piper said, “concentrate on revenge for Damasen. Revenge for Bob.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A moment of silence. “I’m good now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Great, because we need your help. We’re going to run out there together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have no idea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gods, I hate it when you lead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper laughed, which surprised even her. Fear and love really </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> related. At that moment, she clung to the love she had for her friends. “Come on!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We ran in no particular direction and found ourselves back in the shrine room, right behind the giant Mimas. Piper and Annabeth each slashed one of his legs and brought him to his knees. The giant howled. More chunks of stone tumbled from the ceiling. I jumped high as I could, grabbing onto Mimas’s shoulder now that he was on his knees and hauling myself up. Good thing he was short. I then reached out and poked his eyes, ignoring the possible disgust at doing so, and then sent a surge of my emotional fire through him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You’ve heard of being blinded by science? Well now Mimas was blinded by emotions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant threw his head back and shook his entire body like he was trying to shake off an insect, sending me flying to the ground, but I barely felt the impact and rolled to my feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Weak mortals!” Mimas struggled to stand. “No plan of yours can defeat me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s good,” Piper said. “Because I don’t have a plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She and I ran towards the statue of Ares. “Annabeth, keep our friend occupied!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, he’s occupied!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“GAHHHHH!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper stared at the cruel bronze face of the war god. The statue thrummed with a low metallic pulse. The spirits of battle. They’re inside, waiting to be freed. But they weren’t ours to unleash - not until we’d proven ourselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The chamber shook again. More cracks appeared in the walls. Piper glanced at the stone carvings above the doorways: the scowling twin faces of Fear and Panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My brothers,” Piper said, “sons of Aphrodite…I give you a sacrifice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the feet of Ares, she set her cornucopia. The magic horn had become so attuned to her emotions it could amplify her anger, love, or grief and spew forth its bounty accordingly. She hoped that would appeal to the gods of fear. Or maybe they would just appreciate some fresh fruits and vegetables in their diets.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m terrified,” she confessed. “I hate doing this, but I accept that it’s necessary.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She swung her blade and took off the bronze statue’s head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Mimas yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, nothing happened. The fear of the temple pulsed and amplified on both ends. All of us were afraid - afraid of what the makhai would do. Would they help us? Would they abandon us?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held up the three stones of emotion and felt them tuning to the aura in the statue. They pulsed to the beat of a heart’s throbbing. Realizing what they wanted, I chucked them up to the severed head of the statue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They roared to life, sending flames in all directions and releasing a whirlwind of emotional fire that was grabbing onto and manifesting the invisible force of the makhai. The room was filled with a firestorm of emotions: hatred, bloodlust, and fear - but also love, because no one could face battle without caring for </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>: comrades, family, home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Light. A giant hole opened in the ceiling of the cavern, releasing light into the fire-fueled cavern and showering down a cackle. Something came floating down through the hole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If it weren’t for the flames brightening the area and helping my eyesight adjust, I might not have realized it was a person, floating down holding onto a small balloon that really shouldn’t have been big enough to slow their descent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They landed and the balloon disappeared. They stood and faced all of us - giant, demigod, and fiery spirits alike. They were </span>
  <em>
    <span>resonating</span>
  </em>
  <span> with the makhai…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You release the makhai, and now it is time!” Female, her voice ringing out like she was speaking through a sound system.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held her hand up and the area exploded. Emotion. Laughter, joy, celebration. But it was just as terrifying as the Temple of Fear. Laughing oneself to death, joy and elation that makes your heart literally burst, celebrations where you dance and party and fade away without even realizing it. The makhai released the dangers of war, but she was releasing the dangers of happiness. Beneath it all, however, I could tell that she was embodying agony, misery, and strife beneath her joyous façade. My flames pulsed even brighter - they were having trouble keeping everything together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The makhai were condensing - no, Piper was pulling them </span>
  <em>
    <span>towards</span>
  </em>
  <span> her. She held out her arms and the makhai made her the center of their whirlwind. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>We will answer your call,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ they whispered in her mind. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Once only, when you need us, destruction, waste, carnage shall answer. We shall complete your cure. But be warned of them. The cure will not help them, and so she will be the one to release us.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The flames of the makhai vanished along with the cornucopia, and the chained statue of Ares crumbled to dust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Music pounded through the area, tearing the place apart faster as though the entire cavern was sitting atop a giant speaker. The woman was dancing to the beat, stomping as a heavy tune played all around us. It reminded me of Homecoming where we could go to the front of the crowd and stand in front of the speakers, letting the music resonate through our very bodies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look at that, they’re gone!” she crooned. “Oh, how sweet!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Foolish girl!” Mimas charged towards Piper, Annabeth at his heels. “The makhai have abandoned you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or maybe they’ve abandoned </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” I corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mimas raised his hammer, but he’d forgotten about Annabeth. She jabbed him in the thigh and the giant staggered forward, off balance. Piper stepped in calmly and stabbed him in the guy. Mimas crashed face-first into the nearest doorway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pushed himself vertical again, his wounds already closing. “Regardless of the makhai, you cannot kill me without the help of a god!” he wailed. “You will die down here! There is no escape!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone appeared on Mimas’s shoulder, walking around his head as if they had been standing on the giant the whole time. It was a man, holding up a goblet of wine and chugging it while leaning against Mimas’s remaining ear. I could see the outline of horns curling through his hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hatter</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, now, big guy, don’ get so down~” he crooned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mimas reached for him, but Hatter swiftly jumped up upon Mimas’s hair. Mimas clapped his hands together above him to try and squash Hatter, but the drunk boy merely let himself fall to Mimas’s other shoulder and wobble to his feet again. It would’ve been dangerous to be so uneasy on his feet had we been anywhere else and facing any other giant, but Hatter’s…unpredictability seemed to be working in his favor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hatter then leaned over before ramming his head (and horns) into Mimas’s bloody side where his ear was missing. Mimas threw him off with a roar, but Hatter easily rolled to his feet and chugged the rest of his drink. He then turned and chucked the goblet at Mimas’s face with all his might. The glass shattered, sending shards into the giant’s eyes as he staggered back and crashed into the already crumbling cavern wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think this is enough to stop me, puny mortal?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hatter sighed. “Nah, ‘m just the peanut gallery,” he muttered. “Lust? Do yer thing or…whatever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come now, darling, dance with me!” the woman from before said. She aimed her hands at Mimas and his body lurched, pulled by an invisible force. His movements were more like flailing and resisting movement, but she must’ve been making him ‘dance.’ She made him pound his sledgehammer into the walls and floor around him, narrowly missing the ceiling - though it was already starting to come down. Large chunks of rock fell from the walls and ceiling of the room, but Lust snapped and anything that posed a threat transformed into a rain of confetti.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is </span>
  <em>
    <span>happening?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Annabeth wailed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Laugh!” Lust demanded. “Laugh until you can’t handle it anymore!” She broke out into hysterical laughter, and I felt laughter bubbling in my chest from her aura.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But there was very little mirth behind her power. It was horrific kind of laughter, the kind of laughter that became painful. It was the laughter that came from sorrow, the laughter that happened when you were in so much mental pain that laughing was the only thing you could still do. It was the laughter while you stood atop the corpse of a loved one, a bloody weapon in your hands. It was the laughter as you tore a screaming innocent apart as they begged you to stop. It was the terrible laughter of insanity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the giant, his laughter was already destructive. Now he sounded like he was in pain as he laughed, rumbling the whole room as he staggered above in protest, raining down more confetti rubble. His wounds were already healing, but he couldn’t stop his laughter as Lust made him lurch about uncontrollably.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I snatched up the three emotional gemstones that had dropped when the makhai disappeared and handed one to Piper and Annabeth. Stopping their laughter before it became dangerous for them. I was barely managing to push away the sick aura that Lust gave off on my own, but luckily the erratic emotional gems were powerful and didn’t like being tamed to any particular emotion at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come now, let’s have fun while we </span>
  <em>
    <span>can!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Lust exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She threw her hands out and fireworks shot from her palms, exploding in the small cavern. The three of us ducked down and covered our ears. The explosions only made the destruction worse, but Lust seemed to be aiming at Mimas at least. Her music blasted a booming rhythm that rattled me to the core to the point that it became hard to breathe, and her fireworks were only making it worse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s enough!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone descended from the hole in the skylight, held up by what I thought were tentacles. My vision was hazy from the vibrations, but slowly they began to calm down.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Vines</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could sense who it was now. That ethereal chaotic storm surrounding her in the calm eye. Famine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her vines were actually her white hair, lengthening as they held onto the ceiling and dropped her down. A couple vines of her hair lowered down and reached the ground, holding her up as the hair from above let go and retracted back into her. She looked so much different with her hair out of a braid. Her pale hair had a life of its own, wriggling and floating as if she were underwater - waiting for her commands. Some of it pooled at her feet, rising up to provide a perch for her to stand on so that she was still standing 15 feet above the ground to be at Mimas’s eye level.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mimas, who was healing from Lust’s attacks, retook his sledgehammer. “I will </span>
  <em>
    <span>crush</span>
  </em>
  <span> you, child of the Kharities!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust giggled. “Aw, how </span>
  <em>
    <span>sweet</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Buy me a drink first before you start throwing out threats like that!” Lust blew him a kiss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She crossed her legs and a throne-like chair appeared to catch her as she sat. Hatter plopped down a short distance away as a large banquet table appeared and he ended up in one of the seats. The two of them held up their hands and more drinks appeared between their fingers as though they were actually preparing to have a banquet. Even food appeared on the table, fully stocked for a party of at least twenty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Care to join us?” Lust asked innocently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant bellowed and charged towards them, sledgehammer raised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust merely giggled and allowed him to approach. He brought down his weapon with booming force, but he had missed. Lust and her dining table were a few feet behind where Mimas had aimed. It was like…like the Mist. He couldn’t hit them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mimas!” Famine shouted. Her voice was deep and boomed across the area, drawing the giant’s attention. Her hair rose up and wriggled in preparation for battle. “It is time to settle this.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Famine</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should’ve brought War,” Hatter muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My, my, are we </span>
  <em>
    <span>scared</span>
  </em>
  <span>, dear Hatter?” Lust crooned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course not! It just would’ve made life so much easier.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Since when do you not enjoy a challenge, eh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He rolled his eyes. “You’re better at this stuff than I am. I came here for the party aspect, not all the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fighting</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>working</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>running</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust held up one of Hatter’s snakes on her arm. “How very dull of you. Well…I suppose you </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> go into a fight with a pack of wolves and instead turned them into snakes rather than killing them.” She pried the snake from her forearm by the head and then dropped it into the grass beneath her. “You really weren’t necessary to this mission, I’ll have you know. If you want, just leave everything to me. Sit back and enjoy the show.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed. “If I’d know we’d be going to a Temple of </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fear</span>
  </em>
  <span> then I would’ve gotten </span>
  <em>
    <span>far</span>
  </em>
  <span> more drunk before coming here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust rolled her eyes and held out her hand, summoning a wine glass. “Famine, be a dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine frowned, but she held out her hand over the glass and wine began leaking out of her fingers. Lust could summon basically every necessity for a proper party - including alcohol - which meant it was entirely unnecessary for Famine to give her any wine, but apparently Famine knew the proper mixture to mimic wine aged for thousands of years and that was better than most wine Lust could summon on cue. Actually, Hatter himself could get himself drunk without needing to drink anything.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Honestly, these people were so weird sometimes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust was probably one of the only members of the team who could ever demand something so asinine and unnecessary of Famine without flinching - and one of the only ones that Famine would actually comply with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust thrust the wine glass towards Hatter. “Get mad stinking drunk and then watch the fireworks, my dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hatter shrugged and snatched up the glass. “I’m ready for a party if you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine spread her hands apart and pulled a hole open in the ground down into the Temple of Fear. Lust huffed as she jumped through, summoning a balloon into her hand to help her hover down safely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine knew that she preferred Mirage’s transportation because it was ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>less messy</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ as she put it. Lust preferred Mirage’s company over most of them any day, probably because they were the only one who understood her sense of humor. Mirage seemed fond of her too, considering that they were always watching over her through the Mist. Lust sometimes put herself in situations that relied on Mirage to aid her even without any physical request, and Famine had to wonder if Mirage would ever get fed up with it. Famine didn’t know how their relationship worked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine sighed and let Hatter go down through Lust’s power. She never liked Lust’s aura and allowed her to mostly do her little tricks on her own. Famine had never been one to party, and it’d be the third Titan war before she let Lust have her way with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat at the hole down into the Temple of Fear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emily Hezesto was down there. She could feel flames of emotion, swirling about in a chaotic storm of both happiness and sorrow and everything in between. Her power had grown since Famine had last seen her. Then again, she was far more powerful than she let on. Famine knew she was hiding cataclysmic power within her, but unlike her companions, Emily contained herself without </span>
  <em>
    <span>accepting</span>
  </em>
  <span> herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How pitiful…” she muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The wonders and horrors that Emily was capable of made her dangerous indeed - </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> she would ever learn to use her power properly. That was what the Wards trained you to think, to know the potential heights that someone could reach if only they were pushed far enough. They reprogrammed you…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine shook her head. She’d been having migraines ever since Emily had tried to heal her with her fire. Memories from her past kept popping up unbid by her. She remembered teaching the children how to tend to crops - sometimes they could summon them at will, other times they had to do it manually. She remembered diplomatic meetings turning sour and having to kill those who threatened the peace. She remembered her old mentor suggesting that she found her own nation if she didn’t like how things were run there…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>These memories shouldn’t hurt her to remember. At first, they didn’t. She hadn’t thought about her past in a while, she realized. After her encounter with Emily, she started thinking about her past more than she intended to. She had always known, in the back of her mind, who she had been, but the memories had always seemed clouded and distant - as though they were the backstory of a character in a movie someone else was watching.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They reprogramed you</span>
  </em>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine knew that Boss had wanted Ventus and Death to be brought in - the undead child of the traveler god with speed beyond what most of them could handle and the rare Reaper child between life and death. But Boss also couldn’t resist someone like Emily, the catalyst behind even the power of the Primordial gods. Famine felt she knew Emily’s power was familiar, but she couldn’t quite recall </span>
  <em>
    <span>where</span>
  </em>
  <span> she’d heard it. On top of her memories being unusually painful to recall, she had too many to sift through to properly remember what she needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was easier not to think. That seemed to have been a veil that swept over her mind any time she was pulled back into reminiscing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss told her once that she and her team had destroyed Famine’s kingdom. What kingdom? When she tried to think about it, yes she had a kingdom back in the day. But she couldn’t remember much of what she had done to rule it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>It’s easier not to think</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She had dismissed it and moved on with her life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine started to remember her kingdom. Her first memory from when Emily had tried to heal her was poisoning a man attempting to poison </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> to usurp the throne. This kind of thing never happened to her mentor, but then again her mentor ruled under a stricter system of law. Famine was immune to most poisons, and according to Pestilence, she’d pulled a ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Princess Bride</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ when she poisoned all the drinks but only her intended victim perished since she was immune.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine felt the release of the makhai and stood. Mimas’s role was over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her white hair untwisted itself from its braid and expanded in all directions, lifting her up like a hair-based Doctor Octopus. She hopped down into the hole down to the Temple of Fear.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mimas!” Famine shouted. Her voice was deep and boomed across the area, drawing the giant’s attention. “It is time to settle this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust hummed in amusement while Hatter was downing his drink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For the gods’ sake, Lust, stop that infernal racket!” Famine snapped. She’d already been having headaches; she didn’t need Lust’s stupid music making it worse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust huffed and mimed turning a knob in the air and the music quieted down. “You weren’t even invited to the party; you just decided to come along. The giant would be </span>
  <em>
    <span>ours</span>
  </em>
  <span> if not for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re complaining?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighed and crossed her legs, slouching in her seat. “I prefer to be the life of the party. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You</span>
  </em>
  <span> are the death of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hatter munched down on a leg of meat. Famine didn’t know what it was, and she wasn’t sure she </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to. “I do enjoy a good party, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, ma’am, are certainly dull.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The only banquets she ever attends usually end in someone being killed, so there’s hope for you yet at least.” Lust waved her hand as if to motion for Famine to get on with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine released a small scoff, but it wasn’t like it was the worst thing she’d ever had to deal with. Lust’s weakness was enjoying yourself. It was usually the terror at Lust’s influences that allowed her to control you, and Famine knew that she could likely beat Lust in a direct confrontation since Famine could cut off her emotional and mental state to be the equivalent of a natural plant that attacks on instinct. Lust had tried before, but she had yet to learn how to confirm that regular plants have emotion. She’d tried her best to get them to scream, to Famine’s dismay, but she had always failed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Spawn of the Titan King, Ward of Demeter, what business have you here?” Mimas rumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My business does not extend to you, Mimas, however your usefulness has come to an end.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A true pity,” Lust mumbled. “We could’ve kept him as a toy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As much as I would enjoy introducing him to Forge, Boss has ordered his destruction."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust sighed. “I do so enjoy a creature of chaotic destruction of plans. Maybe we’ll meet again one day, my dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arrogant words for a child who relies too heavily upon power over physical might,” Mimas said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s true, I have such delicate little hands that couldn’t punch you if I were in the mood. But, of course, I was beating your ass until dear Whinny showed up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine rolled her eyes. “Your destructive tendencies are only subtle when you’re in the proper mood. And don’t call me that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Enough of this!” Mimas raised his hammer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I agree.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine darted into action, her plants sprouting up around Mimas’s feet and smacking him hard enough to send the giant stumbling. Mimas looked small compared to the amount of tentacle-like vines and roots that sprung to life all around him and began attacking, some poking and others smacking. Mimas swung his sledgehammer and crushed and wiped away the plants, but Famine dodged his swings easily, jumping above a horizontal swing and disconnecting from her plants and then reconnecting to them once she’d landed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine struck out with her hand that split into numerous thorny projectile vines, slicing across Mimas’s skin and dripping ichor across the remains of her plants. Famine’s plants were wriggling and attacking, squeezing Mimas’s legs, releasing a poisonous gas into the air around him, and binding his limbs. His sledgehammer was consumed in the plants overwhelming Mimas’s body weight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The vines began to enter Mimas’s body, quickly rooting and overtaking his entire system before Famine shot forward and pulled her hand of vines into a sharp spear form. She dug her vine hand through Mimas’s chest, the living plants exploding from the giant’s back before he disintegrated into a twenty-foot pile of ash with vines coursing through it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine pulled her plants back in, disappearing as quickly as they’d emerged, letting the dust fall to the cavern floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust sighed. “Well that was at least a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> fun. You could’ve finished him faster, you could’ve finished him slower.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least I got a meal out of it,” Hatter muttered. He’d eaten at least half the table’s worth of food. He was like part satyr - which considering his horns, that wouldn’t be surprising.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Time to bid you adieu, ladies.” Lust gave a salute. “Good job with the makhai, my dear brethren, and good luck getting out alive!” She waved as the pair along with the banquet were consumed by the mist and disappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth stared, her eyes darting between us, where Lust and Hatter had been, Famine and the remains of the giant, and the back to us. “What just happened?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not entirely sure,” Piper admitted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Piper, you were amazing, but those fiery spirits you released-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The makhai.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How does that help us find the cure we’re looking for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They bonded to Piper, I think,” I said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They said I could summon them when the time comes,” she agreed. “Maybe Artemis and Apollo can explain-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A section of the wall calved like a glacier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth stumbled and almost slipped on the giant’s severed ear. “We need to get out of here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m working on it,” Piper said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And, uh, I think this ear is your spoil of war.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gross,” I muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would make a lovely shield.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up, Chase.” Piper stared at the second doorway with the face of Fear above it. “Thank you, brothers. I need one more favor - an escape. And believe me, I am properly terrified. I offer you this, uh, lovely ear as a sacrifice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The stone face made no answer. Another section of the wall peeled away. A starburst of cracks appeared in the ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Animi Motus stones.” Famine was there, holding her hand out to the three of us.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held up the lightly pulsing emotional gem in my hand. It seemed to have calmed down. “You’ll get us out of here if we give you these?” I asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled, almost crookedly. “Fine. I’ll get you out of here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I placed the stone into Famine’s hand, my aura weakening and the fiery glow of my skin fading. Annabeth and Piper reluctantly handed over their stones as well. Once the stones were in Famine’s possession, I felt the air pressure drop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Lust’s music had been like standing on a speaker, the vibrations making it hard to cope, the emotional weight of holding the…the Animi Motus stones, it was like every muscle was tense and every nerve was on fire. It was like your whole body being hit with adrenaline sustained far longer than it should’ve been to the point that it became painful. Emotions of all kinds had been swirling through me at their maximum strength, and then suddenly they all relaxed. It felt easier to breathe, the heat of my fire and the power dropping away instantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It sucked the air out of my lungs, nearly brought me to tears from the intense emotional pressure differential.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excellent.” Famine slipped the stones into a pocket on her formal uniform. “Let us depart.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She walked towards the doorway underneath the face of Fear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re going through </span>
  <em>
    <span>there?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Annabeth muttered. “Can’t we just…climb out on a vine?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cavern trembled like it had been hit with an explosion. Stones of all sizes crashed and rained down as Famine calmly stalked towards the tunnel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We need to go through that doorway,” Piper agreed. “If this works, we might find ourselves back on the surface.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And if it doesn’t?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper looked up at the face of Fear. “Let’s find out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hurry!” I urged, pulling them out of the way of falling rubble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room collapsed around us as we plunged into the dark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Keeping hands clasped to stay together, we ran down the blackened tunnel. I could only assume that Famine was ahead of us, because once we’d vanished into the darkness, I couldn’t feel her emotional energy signature. The rumbling of the collapsing cavern began to fade into the distance, as though we were running farther away into the distance, so that was a good sign.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daylight!” Piper announced. She couldn’t keep the relief from her voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine wasn’t ahead of us anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper led the charge, Annabeth between us, and I followed them into the light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The stone ground gave out from beneath my feet. I started falling into a wriggling, soft, living mass like quicksand. Annabeth’s land slipped free from my own. I fell into someone’s arm, a body catching me and gripping me tightly as we were consumed into the living mass of what I realized were plants.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Unwanted Visit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Woot let's hope I actually manage to remember all the plot points that I had planned and all the things I foreshadowed. I might be going back through the stories in the series multiple times to take down some notes, but that's gon take a while, so who knows?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least they didn’t end up on another cruise ship.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The jump from Portugal had landed them in the middle of the Atlantic, where Reyna spent her whole day on the lido deck of the Azores Queen, shooing little kids of the Athena Parthenos, which they seemed to think was a waterslide. Ane had spent a lot of the time seasick, still not a fan of water just as her big sister. She and Nico had done some sleeping at the foot of the statue, leaving Reyna to basically act as the only mature adult figure since Hedge ran off to find some food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, the next jump brought Reyna home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They appeared ten feet in the air, hovering over a restaurant courtyard that Reyna recognized. Reyna, Nico, Ane, and her familiar dropped onto a large birdcage, which promptly broke, dumping them into a cluster of potted ferns along with three very alarmed parrots. Coach Hedge hit the canopy over a bar. The Athena Parthenos landed on her feet with a </span>
  <em>
    <span>THUMP</span>
  </em>
  <span>, flattening a patio table and flipping a dark green umbrella, which settled onto the Nike statue in Athena’s hand, so the goddess of wisdom looked like she was holding a tropical drink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that wasn’t…horrible,” Ane muttered. “Better than falling into a volcano.” She swept off her dirty blouse and straightened out her jacket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her familiar flipped over and swept down its little dress. “Do,” it agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gah!” Coach Hedge yelled. The canopy ripped and he fell behind the bar with a crash of bottles and glasses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do~!” Ane’s little stuffed poodle exclaimed, jumping on Ane’s head in surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge recovered well. He popped up with a dozen miniature plastic swords in his hair, grabbed the soda gun, and served himself a drink. “I like it!” He tossed a wedge of pineapple into his mouth. “But next time, kid, can we land on the floor and not ten feet </span>
  <em>
    <span>above</span>
  </em>
  <span> it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least it was only ten feet and not a hundred,” Ane pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do,” her poodle agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane moved to help drag Nico out of the ferns. He collapsed in the nearest chair and waved off a blue parrot that was trying to land on his head. After the fight with Lycaon, Nico had discarded his shredded aviator jacket. His black skull-pattern T-shirt wasn’t in much better shape. Reyna had stitched up the gashes on his biceps, which gave Nico a slightly creepy Frankenstein look that Ane found appealing (she had Remnants that looked far worse), but the cuts were still swollen and red. Unlike bites, werewolf claw marks wouldn’t transmit lycanthropy, but Reyna knew firsthand that they healed slowly and burned like acid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s probably more comfortable than getting ripped apart by werewolves,” Ane had pointed out. “I’ve gotten ripped apart by werewolves no more than four times. Though I guess it was a quick end and I healed fast because I died…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She helped give Nico her energy and normalized his shadow-travel energies that were leaking off of him, but Nico was still pushing his limit. Ane could share energies with Nico, but the more power she gave him and received from him, the more unstable both of them became. It was basically like a drug - the more they tampered with the close but foreign energies of each other, the less effective it was and the more potential harm that could come from it. Since she and Nico were both Underworld-related in their energy signatures, it was better than if Ane was sharing her power with, say, someone like Hedge, but with Nico pushing himself as hard as he was, it was only a matter of time. Ane worried Nico might not even have two more jumps left in him even with her assistance. Both of them could get dragged into the shadows, never to emerge, and who </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> what would happen to Reyna, Hedge, and the Athena Parthenos if the two of them ran out of juice during a jump?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve gotta sleep.” Nico looked up in a daze. “Are we safe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not currently under siege, so that’s a good start,” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They scanned the courtyard. The place seemed deserted, though Ane couldn’t find a reason </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span>, which she didn’t like. This time of night, it should’ve been packed. Above them, the evening sky glowed a murky terracotta, the same color as the building’s walls. Ringing the atrium, the second-story balconies were empty except for potted azaleas hanging from the white metal railings. Behind a wall of glass doors, the restaurant’s interior was dark. The only sound was the fountain gurgling forlornly and the occasional squawk of a disgruntled parrot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is Barrachina,” Reyna said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of bear?” Hedge opened a jar of maraschino cherries and chugged them down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a famous restaurant,” Reyna said, “in the middle of Old San Juan. They invented the piña colada here, back in the 1960s, I think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico pitched out of his chair, curled up on the floor, and started snoring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge belched. “Well, it looks like we’re staying for a while. If they haven’t invented any new drinks since the sixties, they’re overdue. I’ll get to work!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s foreboding,” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do…” her poodle grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Hedge rummaged behind the bar, Reyna whistled for Aurum and Argentum. After their fight with the werewolves, the dogs looked a little worse for wear, but Reyna placed them on guard duty. Ane sat down next to them and tried to repair them, straightening out their joints and heads and metal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna checked the street entrance to the atrium. The decorative ironwork gates were locked, and a sign in Spanish and English announced that the restaurant was closed for a private party. That seemed odd, since the place was deserted. At the bottom of the sign were embossed initials: HTK. These bothered Reyna, though she wasn’t sure why. She peered through the gates. Calle Fortaleza was unusually quiet. The blue cobblestone pavement was free of traffic and pedestrians. The pastel-colored shop fronts were closed and dark. Was it Sunday? Or some sort of holiday? Reyna’s unease grew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go,” Ane whispered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her familiar jumped off her shoulder and wandered off, disappearing under furniture and potted greenery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge whistled happily as he set up a row of blenders. The parrots roosted on the shoulders of the Athena Parthenos. Ane wondered whether the Greeks would be offended if their sacred statue arrived covered in tropical bird poop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of all the places Reyna could have ended up…San Juan. She looked very uneasy about the location even before she’d investigated the area’s emptiness. Maybe it was a coincidence, but she feared not. Puerto Rico wasn’t really on the way from Europe to New York. It was much too far south. If anything, it was more than an inconvenience since New York was on the coast of America, and so Nico should’ve been able to make it to New York at the very least, let alone Camp Half-Blood. He could be in trouble if this extra detour ended up expending the last of his energies and they were one jump short of their goal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Reyna had been lending Nico her strength as well for days now. Perhaps she’d influenced him subconsciously. He was drawn to painful thoughts, fear, darkness. And Reyna’s darkest, most painful memory was San Juan. Her biggest fear? Coming back here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her dogs picked up on her agitation. They prowled the courtyard, snarling at shadows. Poor Argentum turned in circles, trying to aim his head so he could see out of his one ruby eye. Ane had managed to straighten out the poor thing’s head, but she couldn’t replace his ruby eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna tried to concentrate on positive memories. She’d missed the sound of the little coqui frogs, singing around the neighborhood like a chorus of popping bottle caps; she’d missed the smell of the ocean, the blossoming magnolias and citrus trees, the fresh-baked bread from the local panaderías. Even the humidity felt comfortable and familiar - like the scented air from a dryer vent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Part of her wanted to open the gates and explore the city. She wanted to visit the Plaza de Armas, where the old men played dominos and the coffee kiosk sold espresso so strong it made your ears pop. She wanted to stroll down her old street, Calle San Jose, counting and naming the stray cats, making up a story for each one, the way she used to do with her sister. She wanted to break into Barrachina’s kitchen and cook up some real mofongo with fried plantains and bacon and garlic - a taste that would always remind her of Sunday afternoons, when she and Hylla could briefly escape the house and, if they were lucky, eat here in the kitchen, where the staff knew them and took pity on them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the other hand, Reyna wanted to leave immediately. She wanted to wake up Nico, no matter how tired he was, and force him to shadow-travel out of here - </span>
  <em>
    <span>anywhere</span>
  </em>
  <span> but San Juan. Being so close to her old house made Reyna feel ratcheted tight like a catapult winch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced at Nico. Despite the warm night, he shivered on the tile floor. She pulled a blanket out of her pack and covered him up. Reyna no longer felt self-conscious about wanting to protect him. For better or worse, they shared a connection now. Each time they shadow-traveled, his exhaustion and torment washed over her, and she understood him a little better. Nico was devastatingly alone. He’d lost his big sister Bianca, he’d pushed away all other demigods who’d tried to get close to him. His experiences at Camp Half-Blood, in the Labyrinth, and in Tartarus had left him scarred, afraid to trust anyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna doubted she could change his feelings, but she wanted Nico to have support. All heroes deserved that. It was the whole point of the Twelfth Legion. You joined forces to fight for a higher cause. You weren’t alone. You made friends and earned respect. Even when you mustered out, you had a place in the community. No demigod should have to suffer alone the way Nico did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tonight was July 25. Seven more days until August 1. In theory, that was plenty of time to reach Long Island. Once they completed their mission, </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> they completed their mission, Reyna would make sure Nico was recognized for his bravery.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She slipped off her backpack. She tried to place it under Nico’s head as a makeshift pillow, but her fingers passed right through him as if he were a shadow. She recoiled her hand. Cold with dread, she tried again. This time, she was able to lift his neck and slide the pillow under. His skin felt cool.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane,” she called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane looked up from Aurum and let the dog wander off for guard duty. She hurried over to Nico and Reyna, kneeling in front of Nico. She sighed, placing her hand on Nico’s arm and feeding him a light touch of energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If Nico keeps pushing himself like this…expending so much energy traveling through the shadows…could he begin to fade permanently?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane nodded. “He could become shadows and not be able to come back. Shadow-travel was not built to be used by a human so much. A hound like Mrs. O’Leary was built to shadow-travel, but humans are not. Nico is able to shadow-travel because he is a half-blood of Hades, but he can’t keep doing this. I…I’m not sure what’ll happen if he fully fades into the shadows. We have to assume his soul will be brought to his father’s realm, but he could just…disappear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Disappear?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Overusing celestial powers can feed on our very soul energies. Souls are strong, but tapping into your soul’s power increases energy usage exponentially. You’re literally feeding on the energy that powers your life, and it’s only supposed to be used in an emergency situation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you become more powerful at the cost of risking your life. An energy boost of desperation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane nodded. “That’s what my mother is about - tapping into the extreme power of your soul in your most desperate moment. But you’re not </span>
  <em>
    <span>supposed</span>
  </em>
  <span> to tap into that power because the energy expenditure could literally suck up your very life force entirely before you can stop it. You wouldn’t even go to the Underworld if you used up your very soul energies. You’d just…be gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Theoretically, regular humans could potentially tap into their souls too, but it’s easier for us who have celestial blood and energies already inside us active. Compare a parent’s hysterical strength when their child is in danger to a half-blood busting out some big celestial move to save a comrade in battle. Our souls are stronger, our bodies have enough energy to sustain our powers. But tapping into that which your life runs on could destroy everything you are - no afterlife, no rebirth, no nothing. There are theories that state that if your soul disappears, so too does every memory of your existence.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna frowned, pursing her lips. “We can’t let that happen. How many jumps do you think we can give him with our power and his remaining energy? Before…before, you know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane shrugged. “Two, maybe three jumps? And that’s pushing it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>One</span>
  </em>
  <span> more jump is pushing it. Regardless of how much power we give Nico, it’s like pushing a machine too hard - it’ll overheat from overuse. If we’d landed in the U.S. at least, I…I might’ve had more confidence that the jump might not be so bad. But getting us across the Atlantic in </span>
  <em>
    <span>two</span>
  </em>
  <span> jumps was lucky. If it were easy, we could’ve shadow-traveled straight to Camp Half-Blood in one bought, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But the distance we travel definitely matters,” Reyna sighed. “Nico can’t keep pushing himself to the limit for seven more days…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can afford maybe a day or two of rest per jump at least. That’s something. We shouldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> more than a couple jumps. We might not be </span>
  <em>
    <span>capable</span>
  </em>
  <span> of more than a couple, so let’s use the time we have. I know it’d be ideal to arrive early, but…but we can’t risk killing Nico and ending up in Texas without any means to travel with this giant forty-foot goddess statue. I’m strong, but trekking this thing halfway across the country isn’t exactly ideal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna sighed. “We have to keep going until we face no other options.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane and Reyna fell into an awkward silence. Ane liked Nico. He was a good guy, despite all that he had gone through, and honestly he didn’t have a terrible relationship with his father. Ane both had too much experience with death and not enough. Maybe it was Rei’s connection with Veon who had a connection with Nico, but Ane felt some connection to Nico.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane thought about her and Nico traveling freely once this war was over. Ane had always wanted to see the Overworld for herself, and having Nico as a companion would be fun. Nico didn’t feel like he belonged with the campers, and Ane would </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> belong with them, so Nico might be her only real friend in this world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He deserved freedom too, Nico di Angelo. Freedom from wars and obligations and expectations and criticism for who he was. Ane wanted to be Nico’s friend in this lonely life, help understand and accept him - as she wanted him to do for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sound of a blender startled her out of her thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want a smoothie?” asked the coach. “This one is pineapple, mango, orange, and banana, buried under a mound of shaved coconut. I call it the Hercules!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’m all right, thanks,” Reyna said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane held her hand up. “Can I have some? I’ve always wanted to eat a Greek hero.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trust me, that jerk deserves to be turned into a smoothie and eaten,” Hedge grumbled. He passed Ane a cup that was enormous to the little girl, along with a straw and one of those little drink umbrellas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She took a careful sip of the fruit-smoothie, and surprisingly, it wasn’t horrific. “Hm. Not bad. I’m not a coconut fan, but eh. I can’t say it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>too</span>
  </em>
  <span> terrible. A little overwhelming for my small child taste buds, but hey, maybe adults find it better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna glanced up at the balconies ringing the atrium. It still didn’t seem right to her that the restaurant was empty. A private party. HTK. “Guys, I think I’ll scout the second floor. I don’t like-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Ane’s familiar’s squeaky little voice rang out in warning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A wisp of movement caught her eye. The balcony on the right - a dark shape. Above that, at the edge of the roof, several more silhouettes appeared against the orange clouds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna drew her sword, but it was too late. A flash of silver, a faint </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoosh</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and the point of a needle buried itself in her neck. Reyna’s eyelids instantly fell and her limbs turned to spaghetti. She collapsed next to Nico.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the bar, the coach yelled, “Hey!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoosh</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The coach collapsed with a silver dart in his neck. Reyna’s dogs were running towards her, but they froze in mid-bark and toppled over. Reyna was looking at Nico, trying to shout to him, but her voice wouldn’t work. Her body had been deactivated as completely as her metal dogs had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane increased her power level and turned to hold up her smoothie glass that blocked a small needle coming her way with a small </span>
  <em>
    <span>clink</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She dived and snatched up Reyna’s sword, slashing through the air and striking down two more needles aimed at her. She pushed over a table and rolled it over so the bar was behind her and the table was a shield in front of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dropped Reyna’s sword beside her and dug into the bag Kaze had given her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> went downhill quickly…” she muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dark figures lined the rooftop, and Ane heard half a dozen leap into the courtyard, quiet and graceful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulled out one of the cylinders that Kaze had given to her, shaking it so that a blade popped out of the hilt and then she clipped one of the cuffs onto her arm, expanding it into a large shield that would block her whole body and was still lightweight. All she needed to do was block needles. If someone wanted to kill them, they would’ve taken the ambush to their advantage, but Reyna and Hedge were just knocked out - based on Reyna’s heavy but stuttered breathing as she tried and failed to fight the drug in her system.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If these people wanted to capture her, then Ane would need to keep them alive to capture </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> for information. Meaning no Remnants for now. Honestly, Ane herself was weakening from supporting Nico, and though her Remnants could recover, she was losing a lot of them from pure energy loss without the power of Tartarus sustaining her. It was annoying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But if these people got too troublesome, she </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to bust out the Remnants. The others needed rest, but this wasn’t the ideal situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s see how troublesome you </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> are,” she muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dived out of her hiding spot behind her table and ran forward, sword drawn. She swung her blade at the first person - a woman, a warrior no doubt. She dived out of the way as Ane’s sword cracked the floor she struck instead. Ane twisted her body and blocked a blunt instrument being swung her way, a staff of some sort. Ane focused her energies into her strike, sending away another female warrior with force that obviously stunned her. Ane was very small, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She used her agility and small, unsuspecting size to her advantage and dived at the nearest warrior swinging her shield at their head to knock them out hard. Ane didn’t have time to think about whether the concussion would be a problem - it was only one of the targets she needed, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane finally got a good look at the situation. At least two dozen in all, five more on the ground level with her, all women? Some dressed in street clothes, others dressed in armor similar to Reyna’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hunters of Artemis, Amazons, or both?” Ane guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A ripple of unease went through the crowd. Ane honestly didn’t know a lot about the two groups of warrior women, but there was little doubt that a group of armed warrior women this large could only be one or the other (or both).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you’ve got the wrong impression,” one of them said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve knocked out two of my partners and tried to take me out too. If </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ve</span>
  </em>
  <span> got the wrong impression, then </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’ve</span>
  </em>
  <span> given me the wrong signs. If you were trying to come in peace, you could’ve at </span>
  <em>
    <span>least</span>
  </em>
  <span> bought me a drink first.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A scream rang out from above in the second balcony, and one of the warriors staggered and flailed, clawing at her throat that was being gripped by a pair of dull fabric arms from a stuffed poodle hanging from behind. Within a few seconds, she was knocked off balance as her allies tried to come to her rescue, but the poodle jumped up to the railing and dived down before they could catch it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Pūdoru, rhit</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Ane ordered. The stuffed animal sat down and slumped over like a regular stuffed animal. “She is not dead, but my poodle can fight as well as I can.” Ane held up her silver sword and pointed it forward to her attackers. “Now what do you want from us, and why should I not slit your throats for what you have done to my companions?”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I woke up inside a small cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The first thing I smelled was the scent of iron and magic. Slowly opening my eyes, I was greeted with a dim room. Beneath me, the cold metal had been warmed by my body heat. Three walls, the floor and the ceiling were pure silver metal, while the final wall was a row of bars of the same metal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sitting up, I noticed a small window made of metal bars as well. I was disarmed of my knife and shield, but otherwise I was unharmed. Reaching up to my shirt, the Heart of Hestia and the Dove of Aphrodite were gone as well. I was able to stand, and if I stood on the balls of my feet, I could see out the window.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Camp Half-Blood, yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I jumped and turned around to see three people standing at the bars to the cell. There was no door, but that problem was explained through one of my guests: Forge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The cell’s made of special Aegis Iron,” Forge said, leaning against his large forging hammer’s long handle and lighting a cigarette. “I’m working on a new steel formula too, adding the right ratio of carbon to the iron, so hang tight. Either way, you aren’t going anywhere, so don’t even try. And no powers, either, even through the bars.” He sucked in a deep breath then blew his smoke off to the side, at least avoiding the women behind him. “Am I done here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, thank you, Forge.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The one known as Boss was even more intimidating up close. Her short blonde hair was slicked back in a formal military-like manner. She was wearing a thick overcoat that definitely screamed ‘General’ or ‘Leader.’ Her expression was not arrogant, I could tell - even if Forge said that my powers wouldn’t work while in the cell. Maybe I </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> more than just my powers, I thought warmingly. Well, as warmingly as I could get while being captured and interrogated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Forge stood straight and picked up his heavy forging hammer, stalking off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re at the Roman temporary camp beside Camp Half-Blood,” Boss repeated. “We’ve been keeping Octavian's army in check - for now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced at Famine, standing a small ways behind Boss. While Boss was intimidating and clearly a military leader, Famine was regal like a queen. She and Boss seemed more like they were diplomatic partners rather than Boss being her superior, and yet Famine was clearly just a soldier at Boss’s command.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why did you bring me here?” I managed to ask. Maybe it was because I no longer had control of my emotional power, but it felt hard to find the courage to speak out with the two of them looking down on me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the outside, these two looked like no more than teenagers like me. Even if Famine was technically hundreds (if not </span>
  <em>
    <span>thousands</span>
  </em>
  <span>) of years old, she was still subservient to Boss, a girl that couldn’t have been much older than me. But her eyes told me she had seen far too much for a girl her age. She was leading a team of demigods whose powers on </span>
  <em>
    <span>paper</span>
  </em>
  <span> sounded intimidating - demigods who could create battles that could bring down entire cities while they were just putting on a show.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And we didn’t even know who they were working for, what their motives were. They could end the battle against the Roman camp in an instant if they wanted to, or they could destroy Camp Half-Blood with the flick of a finger. I wondered what they could do against Gaea and the giants - at least compared to the rest of us. So what were their motives, their goals? What were they waiting for to decide whether or not to end the battle here and now?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are very special, Emily Hezesto,” Boss said. “You hold power over our very existence and that of the Primordial entities. You could make them go insane, or you could make them go away. You might even be able to manipulate them to think what you want them to think; you could subtly encourage their actions or remove their consciousnesses entirely from this world. The importance and power of your role is essential to the victory of this war and the stability of the future of this planet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You want me to manipulate the Primordials for you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> control them so perfectly - which was an impossibility, by the way; their sheer consciousnesses nearly destroyed me, and they were weakened and struggling to get a hold of themselves at the time. Who </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> what the consequences of trying to forcefully eject them from their hosts would be?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“T-That’s not how it </span>
  <em>
    <span>works!</span>
  </em>
  <span> There are so many nuances and complications, and right now they’re in a delicately dangerous state-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you need to fix that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think I wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying?</span>
  </em>
  <span> I’ve only learned about the issues that are happening and that I - </span>
  <em>
    <span>supposedly</span>
  </em>
  <span> - am the only one who can fix it! And if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>, we might </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> be in trouble, by the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In what manner? Are they attempting an apocalypse?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They nearly </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> back when we were in Tartarus. They nearly gave up on this world and set off every end-of-the-world apocalypse that you can think of from whatever religion you want to believe in. We barely managed to stop them before, and even now, Khaos is unstable. Life is a game to them - this entire world, our lives, all of it. I need to fix Khaos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what do you need to do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To…to find a new host. I need to split up the gods into the appropriate hosts that’ll balance everything out after what happened with Gaea and Tartarus conspiring to destabilize the ancient Primordials to usurp their titles as the strongest gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell us what you know. About these Primordials whose power is unimaginable even in this basic form within hosts they supposedly use for fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help but hesitate. “Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because if you don’t, you may learn just how terrible our hospitality might be. You would be surprised how many factors in life you take for granted. Social company, the very sun of the day and darkness of the night, food, water, toiletries, heat, oxygen. No, we will not kill you, if you must know. But you must also know there are many ways to make life hell, where death would be a mercy. Oh, and don’t forget that we are one of the only things keeping the camps from engaging in a war that would end both demigod camps in an instant. The Wards have wanted to get their hands on places like Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter for many years now - either to capture the camps or, more ideally, to destroy the safe havens that keep demigods out of their grasp.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think well and hard about what you do and do not tell us, Emily Hezesto of the Dove and Hearth,” Famine warned. “You may hold the secrets of the Primordials who threaten this very plane of existence, but we hold power over what you and your people care for the most.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The answer came to her before she was fully conscious. The initials on the sign at Barrachina: HTK.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not funny,” Reyna muttered to herself. “Not </span>
  <em>
    <span>remotely</span>
  </em>
  <span> funny.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Years ago, Lupa had taught her how to sleep lightly, wake up alert, and be ready to attack. Now, as her senses returned, she took stock of her situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A cloth sack covered her head, but it didn’t seem to be cinched around her neck. She was tied to a hard chair - wood, by the feel of it. Cords were tight against her ribs. Her hands were bound behind her, but her legs were free at the ankles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Either her captors were sloppy, or they hadn’t expected her to wake up so quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna wiggled her fingers and toes. Whatever tranquilizer they’d used, the effects had worn off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold tight,” Ane whispered. “And stay quiet.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna heard Ane shifting behind her, tied up to another chair, perhaps, in a similar manner. Ane leaned forward and stood on her feet, expanding her form into one of her older Remnants who was a teenager - far larger than the tiny four-year-old that Ane was. Ane grunted as her bound hands were squeezed tightly by her bindings as she grew into 941. 941 had been shot to death half a dozen times in the chest, so Ane felt the holes in her chest, her punctured lungs, ribs, heart, major arteries, etc.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>941 jumped up and then fell backwards on her wooden chair, using her new weight and size to easily smash it. “That’ll get their attention,” she muttered, her voice deeper and older as a grown teenager but also distorted like she was speaking with a mouth full of water - blood. “Be ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>941 wriggled onto her side and then pulled her arms underneath her legs, painfully struggling as the blood circulation was quickly cut off from her wrists during her transformation. She finally managed to get her arms in front of her, wiggling her hands and feeling zip ties. She could deal with zip ties.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rude,” she muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somewhere behind her, at Reyna’s front, footsteps echoed down a corridor. The sound got closer. Reyna let her muscles go slack. She rested her chin against her chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A lock clicked. A door creaked open. Judging from the acoustics, they were in a small room with brick or concrete walls: maybe a basement or a cell. One person entered the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna calculated the distance. No more than five feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She surged upward, spinning so the chair legs smashed against her captor’s body. The force easily broke the chair. Her captor fell with a painful grunt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouts from the corridor. More footsteps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>941 pushed herself upright and pulled her bound hands up in front of her. She then pulled them towards her torso with a rapid and abrupt jolt, snapping the zip ties easily and freeing her hands. She ripped the bag off her head and reached over for Reyna’s, tugging the cloth sack off her head. Reyna dropped into a backward roll, pulling her bound hands under her legs faster than Ane had managed and moving her arms in front of her. Her captor - a teen girl in gray camouflage - lay dazed on the floor, a knife at her belt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna grabbed the knife and straddled her, pressing the blade against her captor’s throat. 941 grabbed a pair of the jagged remains of Reyna’s chair, now with plenty of blunt wooden instruments at her disposal, and held up the weapons. She could infuse her touch with 941’s death - the bullets in many of her major organs, choking on her own blood and bleeding out - when she was ready. 941 couldn’t speak very well because her throat was clogged with blood, but her zombie-like state was more than enough to be intimidating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three more girls crowded the doorway. Two drew knives. The third nocked an arrow in her bow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, everyone froze.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s hostage’s carotid artery pulsed under the blade. Wisely, the girl made no attempt to move.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna ran scenarios on how she and 941 could overcome the three in the doorway, and assessing if she should give the kill order to 941. All of the girls wore gray camouflage T-shirts, faded black jeans, black athletic shoes, and utility belts like they were going camping or hiking…or hunting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the Hunters of Artemis,” Reyna realized.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Take it easy,” said the girl with the bow. Her ginger hair was shaved on the sides, long on top. She had the build of a professional wrestler. “You’ve got the wrong impression.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl on the floor exhaled, but Reyna knew that trick - trying to loosen an enemy’s hold. Reyna pressed the knife tighter against the girl’s throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You’ve</span>
  </em>
  <span> got the wrong impression,” Reyna said, “if you think you can attack me and take me captive. I won’t speak for my friend over there about how screwed you are by making her your enemy. Where are the rest of our friends?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unharmed, right where you left them,” the ginger girl promised. “Look, it’s three to two and your hands are tied.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re right,” Reyna growled. “Get another six of you in here against me alone and another dozen for my little friend over there and it might be a fair fight. I demand to see your lieutenant, Thalia Grace.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ginger girl blinked. Her comrades gripped their knives uneasily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the floor, Reyna’s hostage began to shake. Reyna thought she might be having a fit, but then she realized the girl was laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something funny?” Reyna asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girl’s voice was a gravelly whisper. “Jason told me you were good. He didn’t say </span>
  <em>
    <span>how</span>
  </em>
  <span> good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna focused more carefully on her hostage. The girl looked about sixteen, with choppy black hair and startling blue eyes. Across her forehead glinted a circled of silver.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> Thalia?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I’d be happy to explain,” Thalia said, “if you’d kindly not cut my throat.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Kindness and Callousness</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Y'all, since I've been living in the land of my 'Two of Them' story for so long, I have to retrain myself to shorten my chapters down to, ya know, less than an average of 10,000 words per chapter!</p><p>But since I'm having some epiphanies with lots of inspiration, I might be posting more often or with double updates because I'm churning out a lot more words than I want in a single chapter.</p><p>But we're getting through this story and I'm actually checking things off my notes list. *Single tear* It's so beautiful.</p><p>Enjoy!</p><p>:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hunters guided the two through a maze of corridors. The walls were concrete blocks painted army green, devoid of windows. The only light came from dim fluorescents spaced every twenty feet. The passages twisted, turned, and doubled back, but the ginger-haired Hunter, Phoebe took the lead. She seemed to know where she was going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was sourly reminded of the Wards, who had long, windowless corridors like these built to prevent anyone from running. The corridors were enchanted and/or designed to be reorganized and controlled in case of an invading force or one trying to escape. When the kids in the Wards were taken across the labs to testing rooms, the path was never the same. There were Hephaestus and Hecate kids (and their Roman counterparts) and other appropriately trained and raised kids enchanting and designing mechanical mechanisms to allow the corridors to be manipulated and redesigned into a nonsensical pattern that could only be navigated by the staff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia Grace limped along, holding her ribs where Reyna had hit her with the chair. The Hunter must’ve been in pain, but her eyes sparkled with amusement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Again, my apologies for abducting you.” Thalia didn’t sound very sorry. “In your defense, your little friend over there put up a good fight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane snorted. “They hit me with over a </span>
  <em>
    <span>dozen</span>
  </em>
  <span> tranqs,” the four-year-old grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well that’s how many it took to get you down,” Phoebe protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was putting up a lot of resistance.” Thalia seemed amused. “We tranquilized you for every warrior you took down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane rolled her eyes. “I’ve got over a thousand lives within me at the moment - all of which are dead, therefore most tranquilizers aren’t effective at all. You had potent stuff. Only place I’ve seen with more advanced tech is…well, perhaps a place </span>
  <em>
    <span>just</span>
  </em>
  <span> like this…” She scoffed. “But you could’ve just </span>
  <em>
    <span>told</span>
  </em>
  <span> me where you wanted me to go rather than being all vague and still insisting I couldn’t be conscious. I hope you’re all nursing your concussions and bruises for weeks.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well this lair is secret. The Amazons have certain protocols-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Amazons,” Reyna repeated. “You work for them?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>With</span>
  </em>
  <span> them,” Thalia corrected. “We have a mutual understanding. Sometimes the Amazons send recruits our way. Sometimes, if we come across girls who don’t wish to be maidens forever, we send them to the Amazons. The Amazons do not have such vows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the other Hunters snorted in disgust. “Keeping male slaves in collars and orange jumpsuits. I’d rather keep a pack of dogs any day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Their males aren’t slaves, Celyn,” Thalia chided. “Merely subservient.” She glanced at Reyna. “The Amazons and Hunters don’t see eye to eye on everything, but since Gaea began to stir, we have been cooperating closely. With Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood at each other’s throats, well…someone has to deal with all the monsters. Our forces are spread across the entire continent. We’ve been running into other freelance demigods too - though sometimes we do butt heads with them as well. It’s…it’s been a bit hectic.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane frowned. The Wards were likely increasing their forces to handle the monsters. Regardless of how terrible they were to the demigods they captured and brainwashed and domesticated or created, the Wards were still built to fight threats to mortals and regular humans - it masqueraded as the underdogs taking power against monsters and corrupt gods alike. But they would also want to capture the Hunters of Artemis and the Amazons and any other enhanced person and/or demigod they come into contact with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna massaged the rope marks on her wrists. “I thought you told Jason you knew nothing of Camp Jupiter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That was true </span>
  <em>
    <span>then</span>
  </em>
  <span>. But those days are over, thanks to Hera’s scheming.” Thalia’s expression turned serious. “How </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> my brother?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When I left him in Epirus, he was fine.” Reyna told her what she knew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She found Thalia’s eyes distracting: electric blue, intense, and alert, so much like Jason’s. Otherwise the siblings looked nothing alike. Thalia’s hair was choppy and dark. Her jeans were tattered, held together with safety pins. She wore metal chains around her neck and wrists, and her gray camo shirt sported a button that read </span>
  <b>PUNK IS NOT DEAD. YOU ARE</b>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna had always thought of Jason Grace as the all-American boy. Thalia looked more like the girl who robbed all-American boys at knifepoint in an alley.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hope he’s still well,” Thalia mused. “A few nights ago I dreamed about our mother. It…wasn’t pleasant. Then I got Nico’s message in my dreams - about Orion hunting you. That was even </span>
  <em>
    <span>less</span>
  </em>
  <span> pleasant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s why you’re here. You got Nico’s message.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we didn’t rush to Puerto Rico for a vacation. This is one of the Amazons’ most secure strongholds. We took a gamble that we’d be able to intercept you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Intercept us…how? And why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In front of them, Phoebe stopped. The corridor dead-ended at a set of metal doors. Phoebe tapped on them with the butt of her knife - a complicated series of knocks like Morse code.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia rubbed her bruised ribs. “I’ll have to leave you here. The Hunters are patrolling the old city, keeping a lookout for Orion. I need to get back to the front lines.” She held out her hand expectantly. “My knife, please?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna handed it back. “What about my own weapons?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ll be returned when you leave. I know it seems silly - the kidnapping and blindfolding and whatnot - but the Amazons take their security seriously. Last month they had an incident at their main center in Seattle. Maybe you heard about it. A girl named Hazel Levesque stole a horse.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arion,” Ane recalled. “Yes, I hear it was under the guard of that dead Amazon girl’s rule when she was challenging the current ruling Amazon leader using Death’s capture to come back each time she died.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hunter Celyn grinned. “Naomi and I saw the security footage. Legendary.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Epic,” agreed the third Hunter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At any rate,” Thalia said, “we’re keeping an eye on Nico and the satyr. Unauthorized males aren’t allowed anywhere </span>
  <em>
    <span>near</span>
  </em>
  <span> this place, but we left them a note so they wouldn’t worry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From her belt, Thalia unfolded a piece of paper. She handed it to Reyna. It was a photocopy of a handwritten note. When Reyna raised a skeptical eyebrow, Ane snatched it from her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>IOU one Roman praetor and one little warrior girl.</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span><br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>They will be returned safely.</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span><br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>Sit tight.</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span><br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>Otherwise you’ll be killed.</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span><br/>
</span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>XOX, the Hunters of Artemis</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s eyes narrowed. “My familiar tells me they aren’t happy. If anything, this made knocking them out and kidnapping us look even worse. I get that you ladies don’t like boys, but I didn’t realize that made you terrible at psychology.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Nico knows me,” Thalia brushed off. “He’s the one who sent a message to me about Orion hunting you. He shouldn’t worry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane bit the inside of her lip and glanced up at Reyna. Reyna finally noticed that Ane’s little stuffed poodle wasn’t clinging to her. When Ane had said that her familiar said the boys weren’t happy, Reyna realized she actually meant it: Ane’s familiar had been left behind with the boys, probably because they didn’t understand the partial sentience of the stuffed animal or the depth of Ane’s connection with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Phoebe grinned. “It’s cool. I covered your Athena Parthenos with this new camouflage netting I designed. It should keep monsters - even Orion - from finding it. Besides, if my guess is right, Orion isn’t tracking the statue as much as he’s tracking </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna felt like she’d been punched between the eyes. “How could you know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Phoebe is my best tracker,” Thalia said. “And my best healer. And…well, she’s generally right about most things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Most</span>
  </em>
  <span> things?” Phoebe protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia raised her hands in an ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>I-give-up</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ gesture. “As for why we intercepted you, I’ll let the Amazons explain. Phoebe, Celyn, Naomi - accompany Reyna and Ane inside. I have to see to our defenses.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re expecting a fight,” Reyna noted. “But you said this place was secret and secure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia sheathed her knife. “You don’t know Orion. I wish we had more time Praetor. I’d like to hear about your camp and how you ended up there. And about how you came to work with this little mystery.” She motioned to Ane. “You remind me so much of your sister, Reyna, and yet-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know Hylla?” Rena asked. “Is she safe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia tilted her head. “None of us are safe these days, Praetor, so I really must go. Good hunting!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t die, Thalia Grace,” Ane warned. “Your brother fights off death as well. If you wish to see him again, you’d best hold on no matter what.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia nodded. “You too, little beast.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held up her fist and Ane complied to give her a fist-bump. Thalia turned and disappeared down the corridor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The metal doors creaked open. The three Hunters led Reyna and Ane through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After the claustrophobic tunnels, the size of the warehouse took Reyna’s breath away. An aerie of giant eagles could’ve done maneuvers under the vast ceiling. Three-story-tall rows of shelves stretched into the distance, robotic forklifts zipped through the aisles, retrieving boxes. Half a dozen young women in black pantsuits stood nearby, comparing notes on their tablet computers. In front of them were crates labeled: </span>
  <b>EXPLOSIVE ARROWS AND GREEK FIRE (16 OZ. EZ-OPEN PACK)</b>
  <span> and </span>
  <b>GRYPHON FILLETS (FREE-RANGE ORGANIC)</b>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Directly in front of Reyna, behind a conference table piled high with reports and bladed weapons, sat a familiar figure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Baby sister.” Hylla rose. “Here we are, home again. Facing certain death again. We have to stop meeting like this.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It got cold at night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Metal got extremely cold. Even with my body heat warming my little corner of the cell, my jeans and blouse definitely weren’t enough even for a summer night in New York. It wasn’t freezing to the point that I was risking hypothermia or anything, but it was more than enough to be disturbing and keep me from getting any proper sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Could be worse, I kept reminding myself. I could literally be freezing in icy-cold air. The current temperature would be considered a warm temperature in the winter and spring.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nope, still didn’t make me feel better. Too bad that I was failing at psychologically manipulating myself. Gods, it was a lot harder without my powers, I realized. I felt so out of control of myself and my abilities. Was this how everyone else felt normally all the time?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe it was just the shock of not having my powers in </span>
  <em>
    <span>general</span>
  </em>
  <span> that made me feel so out of it. Not being able to feel anyone else’s emotions around me made me feel…empty. I recalled, once again, Rei’s curse of the Styx being having so much choice and not knowing the path she should take - knowing that she was responsible for her actions without prophecies or fate guiding her. Now that I didn’t have other people’s emotions influencing me from all sides, I was almost lost at how I should be feeling myself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So I guess my discomfort and my choice not to go kicking and screaming in a futile effort to escape was just me and me alone. It was nice, in a way, to know that while I was here, every choice and feeling was my own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nope, the cold still sucked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was also a draft because of my nice little window - which was still a bit of a blessing since I could at least keep track of night and day. Not knowing how many hours had passed would probably drive me to madness, I was sure. The days until August were closing in quickly and the others were out there without me, going off to fight who knows how many monsters and challenges while they headed to find a curse in Delos and getting a cure to death - a gift that would likely have a high cost and high risk just having it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was confident in the strength of the others, but that didn’t quell my anxiety of not knowing what they were going through. No, they definitely weren’t safe, there was no question about that, but the challenges they were facing were still nerve-wracking to think of, so far away, while I was here amidst the battles of the camps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Footsteps interrupted my thoughts. I wasn’t sure how many hours had passed, if I’d fallen asleep for short bursts or if that was just me resting my eyes drowning in my thoughts about the cold metal and breeze surrounding me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a loud door down the corridor that opened around at least one turn. My cell appeared to be in a line of a few cells, right at the end. There was a long corridor in front of me, and no matter what angle I tried to look at, the most I could see was the metal wall of the hall in front of my cell stretching into the distance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I counted the steps, but there were rapid, uneven beats and scraping, as though something with more than two feet was walking down the corridor dragging something behind them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally I caught sight of a large figure coming down the corridor. At first, I thought it was some kind of monster, but the soft beats and swiping across the metal floor didn’t feel threatening. I forced myself to continue looking until it finally hit me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her prehensile hair was carrying her like a walking throne with multiple leg-like protrusions beneath her. It looked like she was riding a living tree made of her white hair with the roots walking along the metal floor, swift and coordinated as a wave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She tossed her white hair through the bars of the prison cell, and a moment later I processed that she hadn’t thrown her hair in - she’d thrown in a large, puffy, white duvet. It was a blanket big enough to cover a queen sized bed, big enough to wrap around myself twice over from head to toe and beyond. I snatched it up and pulled it to spread it out under myself and wrap it over my shoulders. In retrospect, perhaps I should worry about if there was some kind of poison or something on it. Regular bed sheets could get a bunch of microscopic bugs on them if you didn’t wash them, so who </span>
  <em>
    <span>knows</span>
  </em>
  <span> what Famine or any of her other colleagues could put on this?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But the blanket was extremely clean and very soft…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> for?” I managed to ask.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For cooperating today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you didn’t give me much of a choice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She lowered herself so that she was sitting in the corridor on a mountain of her soft hair. We were both wrapped up as though we were having a sleepover. Just with bars between us. “I retrieved that duvet from Sandman’s sanctuary. He is always stocked with numerous luxuries for the sake of his sleeping habits and power. I figured he could spare a single sheet if I asked nicely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help my smile. “Isn’t Sandman the younger one? The kid? I imagine he was more scared into giving it away than being generous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think I scare him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you scare a lot of people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I scare you? Now that you cannot sense every aspect of my character?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose,” I shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What prompts your hesitance?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I dunno. You’re just not…you’re not that bad, in the long run. I’ve met people far worse, villains and monsters who believe heavily in their own power to do harm upon others. I sense both destruction and creation from you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m subservient to Boss and her orders. You don’t know who I am and what I might choose to be, were I free.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “Maybe not. But do </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> even know what you’d be without Boss’s team?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine paused. “I don’t remember who I was,” Famine admitted. “Or rather, I remember, but I do not remember how it felt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How so?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Long ago, I believe I ran a nation of misfits. Children and adults of celestial and demonic blood, abandoned into this harsh world between the heavens and the hells. Long ago, this world was but chaos. My mentor, a great woman, brought together the nations of the supernatural together in a quest for peace. I tried my hand at founding my own civilization for those who wanted nothing else from this world.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was it a success?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. For a long time, it was. It was a beautiful city, partially hidden within caves and caverns up north. But the demigods that we had there sustained everything - sunlight, food, water, medicine, entertainment, and yes, a military. Refugees came and went, and for the most part, we hid. And then they came. The humans who planned to form an army of demigods and other supernaturals. But I could sense their true intent: they wished for us to be slaves. I think I bargained for the safety of my people, and that is how I found myself in the Ward system.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You bargained your life for your peoples’?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “Though in the end, it was pointless. Years of their torture and attempts to subdue me ended mostly in failure. But then, my attempts at escape also ended in failure. Perhaps it was because they hoped to spare my kingdom so long as I played their game. I confronted them about it. I knew of their plans to destroy my people once I was out of the picture, but they were strong enough and prepared enough to fight back - I made sure of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what finally…changed your mind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She scoffed, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “There are many ways to change one’s mind, ranging from a heartfelt conversation to a lobotomy. But I am not entirely sure what they did to me. I believe they simply eliminated my ability to care. My empire fell, my hard work and dedication destroyed, and I can hardly remember what it felt like to love the people there. I don’t remember much of what drove me to protect them. It’s all…a blur. Until you healed me, that is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine held her hand up to her arm where my fire had entered her before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That little vision that I saw when that happened-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One of my memories. My kingdom worked with many others across the planet, organizations pertaining to the celestial and supernatural of all kinds. I believe that man was attempting to make a deal that my city needed his funding. Pestilence says I had ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>pulled a Princess Bride</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ when I described it to her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You told him to choose one of two drinks that were potentially poisoned so that you’d drink together to determine who lived. But you’d poisoned </span>
  <em>
    <span>both</span>
  </em>
  <span> drinks, and because you’d developed an immunity to the poison you were okay regardless of the drink he chose?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bloody hell, is this ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Princess Bride</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ truly such a widespread concept among you modern Freebies?” Famine looked surprisingly indignant for such a regal and refined woman.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I laughed. “Princess Bride is a classic. It’s a bit cheesy for the modern day, but I liked it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine scoffed. “Yes, Pestilence and Lust constantly recommend movies. War is only interested if there is enough gore - which Lust is happy to provide - and Forge doesn’t pay attention unless there’s a scientific invention or theory he intends to disprove or test. Hatter’s only there to make drunken commentary, Boss never participates in movie night anyway because she’s usually working while we have free time, and Quake is either at her side or so silent he might as well not be there. Mirage enjoys taking movie concepts and making them reality just to mess with us, Sandman sleeps through most, if not all, entertainment attempted, Iota just tries to keep the peace, while Pain and Seven are the most normal moviegoers just trying to enjoy the show.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You all seem very close. I…well, I guess I didn’t really figure you guys would be having movie nights or anything.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know very little of who we are. Many within our team do not know the…dark secrets of our pasts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do…</span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of you have…‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>dark secrets</span>
  </em>
  <span>’?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That appears to be one of the qualifications of being a part of this team. Great power such as ours does not often accompany a…kind history. I lost my empire, but that is just a fraction of who I am. I, personally, cannot truly feel the magnitude of my past at the moment. As I said, I have lost most ability to feel or care.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mimas called you the ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Spawn of the Titan King</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ and the ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Ward of Demeter</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ I thought you were the child or creation of Demeter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “I am. Demeter is my…patron, I suppose you could say. I was born from the tear of Kronos. Demeter found that it was the only sign that Kronos was perhaps not a monster, and therefore used the tear as a seed to grow me into what she must’ve hoped would be the embodiment of Kronos’s kindest traits and potential for goodness. While I am called sometimes a child of Kronos, Demeter was the one to foster life upon me. I do not consider myself a child of Kronos. I am merely a…‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>spawn</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ of him. It’s the equivalent of chopping off a finger and giving it a name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You killed Mimas without the help of a god…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “I’m not sure what I should be considered. I am not a god, but I am certainly not human. I was abandoned by Demeter not long after the gods had overthrown the reign of Kronos. Or…perhaps I abandoned </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The memory is long in the past. But I do know that I learned very little from Demeter as a mother, and what I </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> learn, I valued very little. It was a long time before I met a mentor who was attempting to unite the supernatural and human world in an agreement that would eventually lead to the human world knowing nothing of the monsters and gods that still roam this world, hidden from mortal eyes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This sounds like a…an important person.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. “She probably still roams this world, as we immortals do. I haven’t seen her in aught 200 or more years. But, you see, that is how it is for we who do not live to die. A death in the immortal community would be well known. We are used to immortals being a consistent existence. We can go decades, </span>
  <em>
    <span>centuries</span>
  </em>
  <span> without seeing each other, but we will always know they are there and know that when all else fades, they will stand by us one day again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what about your current mortal friends - in Boss’s team? I mean…you have movie nights. I’m sure there’s more, too. And aren’t a couple of </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> immortal?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mirage and Forge. But Mirage is a new immortal, only created recently through the Wards’ testing. They are young, immature, but they are at least a breath of fresh air. Forge is as old as I am - we have known each other in the Ward program for most of our lives. But we are…immune to each other. We neither get along nor quarrel any longer. We’ve not the care for hatred, not truly. Though opposition between us does remind us to be human - as human as we </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is a gift, they say, to be what we are. But I find the most comfort in…in the mortals. In our fleeting movie nights, in Pestilence’s insistence that we dine in new restaurants every now and then, in Lust and Mirage’s many pranks and studies in psychology, in Hatter’s failed attempts at winning Pestilence’s heart, in Sandman’s constant insistence that I refer to him as ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sandy</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ in Boss’s addiction to libraries and new books to seek out information the moment she learns that there is something she does not know, in Quake’s quiet communication that hides much personality, in Seven’s gambling and take on risk and luck, in Iota’s constant positive take on life despite her fears and insecurities, in War’s constant obsession with battle and the question of her true affiliations with Forge, in Pain’s enjoyment of…well, pain. These young ones are all so…unpredictable. Even if some of them are older than others and young immortals, their youth is…it is the only thing that gives me reason to ponder if I am truly living if I cannot be as diverse and happy as they are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re a big family. I’m almost jealous. You…you all are so much more human than you look on the outside.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are always monsters to fight, missions assigned to us, but we’re such an elite team, that we rarely get called in for anything that lasts more than a few seconds. The only reason it </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> is because we were playing around or Boss told us to do something a certain way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you have a lot of free time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is freedom that is not normally granted to those in the Ward program - and it’s understandable. Our freedom has made us unpredictable. If it was not for Boss, I’m sure many of us would choose to flee and choose our own paths. Some would be heroic, others would be very villainous.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you’d be the former, if we’re being honest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine hesitated. Even as the sun rose behind me, filling the room with the dawn sun, I couldn’t tell from her face if she seemed stunned or surprised in any way - or if she was confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve actually been rather busy in the long run, considering that most of the demigod and godly forces in the world have been incapacitated as of the recent war,” Famine finally said. “We were stationed in the United States after the recent Titan war and the incident in New York. Sandman sensed a widespread sleeping spell as well as a large rising of monsters and even sightings of the gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “It’s one thing to hear the stories - even from Percy and Annabeth and the others at Camp Half-Blood who…who had so many losses. But it’s another thing to really </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> what they were feeling, even when they’re speaking of it in retrospect. I heard about Luke Castellan, the arguments about whether sacrificing himself to stop Kronos really redeemed him or not. After all, so many of us have gone through terrible things, but that didn’t lead us to hurting - even </span>
  <em>
    <span>killing</span>
  </em>
  <span> - other demigods. Just </span>
  <em>
    <span>kids</span>
  </em>
  <span>…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is not easy to forgive, or so I am led to believe. According to the reports on the battle, we lost many Ward…soldiers stationed in both New York and California. We’d heard rumors while hunting monsters about a potential second Titan uprising, but we could’ve never predicted it would be so…disastrous. I don’t think the Wards believed it would get as bad as it did. But indeed, it does make the demigods who were responsible for the victory of interest to the Wards.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You mean like those in Camp Half-Blood…like Annabeth, Percy, Nico-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. “Of course. In fact, your friend, Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god - Boss has assigned Quake to go forth and challenge his might.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy? What do you mean? You wanna make Percy stronger? I mean, he’s already-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You misunderstand. Perseus Jackson is one of the most powerful demigods of this era, but Boss knows that he is not one of us - but Quake is. Quake does not yet have hydrokinesis or healing from water, but we are capable of siphoning abilities from demigods we defeat and capture. While many of us on our team would be capable of subduing Perseus through tactical means, it is Quake’s charge - Quake’s objective and responsibility to take the power he requires through his own effort. If Quake wishes this power to be his, he must first overcome this trial by his own merit. Boss has sent Quake to fight Perseus Jackson to kill him and receive his power. The next time you see your companion may be the last.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Ambush of Old Foes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Double update time because there's so much to write about and an honestly long battle set up and scene so lota content it is!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Third Person: Ane</p><p>“So…care to introduce me?”</p><p>Reyna’s feelings were so much <em> mixed </em> as they were thrown into a blender with gravel and ice. Every time she saw her sister, she didn’t know whether to hug her, cry, or walk away. Of course she loved Hylla. Reyna would have been dead many times over if not for her sister. But their past together was beyond complicated.</p><p>Hylla walked around the table. She looked good in her black leather pants and black tank top. Around her waist glittered a cord of gold Labyrinthine links - the belt of the Amazon queen. She was twenty-two now, but she could’ve been mistaken for Reyna’s twin. They had the same long dark hair, the same brown eyes. They even wore the same silver ring with the torch-and-spear emblem of their mother, Bellona. The most obvious difference between them was the long white scar on Hylla’s forehead. It had faded over the last four years; anyone who didn’t know better might’ve mistaken it for a worry line. But Reyna remembered the day Hylla got that scar in a duel aboard the pirate ship.</p><p>“Well?” Hylla prompted. “No warm words for your sister?”</p><p>“Thank you for having me abducted,” Reyna said. “For shooting me with a tranquilizer dart, putting a bag over my head, and tying me to a chair.”</p><p>Hylla rolled her eyes. “Rules are rules. As a praetor, you should understand that. This distribution center is one of our most important bases. We have to control access. I can’t make exceptions, especially not for my family.”</p><p>“I think you just enjoyed it.”</p><p>“That too. We nearly didn’t bring your little friend after the stunts she pulled.”</p><p>Ane placed her hand over her chest and bowed at the waist. “Happy to be an eternal pain in your ass, madam. I don’t take kindly to ambushes and tranquilizer darts.”</p><p>Reyna wondered if her sister was as cool and collected as she seemed. She found it amazing, and a little scary, how quickly Hylla had adapted to her new identity.</p><p>Six years ago, she’d been a scared big sister, doing her best to shield Reyna from their father’s rage. Her main skills had been running and finding them places to hide. Then on Circe’s island, Hylla had worked hard to be noticed. She wore flashy clothes and makeup, she smiled and laughed and always stayed perky, as if acting happy would <em> make </em> her happy. She’d become one of Circe’s favorite attendants. After their island sanctuary burned, they were taken prisoner aboard the pirates’ ship. Again Hylla changed. She’d dueled for their freedom, out-pirated the pirates, gained the crew’s respect so well that Blackbeard finally put them ashore lest Hylla take over his ship.</p><p>Now she’d reinvented herself again as queen of the Amazons.</p><p>Of course, Reyna understood why her sister was such a chameleon. If she kept changing, she could never fossilize into the thing their father had become…</p><p>“Those initials on the reservation sign at Barrachina,” Reyna said. “HTK. Hylla Twice-Kill, your new nickname. A little joke?”</p><p>“Just checking to see if you were paying attention.”</p><p>“You knew we would land in that courtyard. How?”</p><p>Hylla shrugged. “Shadow-travel is magic. Several of my followers are daughters of Hecate. It was a simple enough matter for them to pull you off course, especially since you and I share a connection.”</p><p>Reyna tried to keep her anger in check. Hylla, of all people, should know how she would feel about being dragged back to Puerto Rico.</p><p>“So you risked us having to make <em> another </em> shadow-travel jump to get where we need to go, risking Nico’s very life - and our quest in <em> general </em> if he conks out too soon, for what?” Ane snapped. “I get that you maniacs don’t like men, but this is the destruction of nearly the entire demigod population, we’re talking about! I swear, if Nico dies because we had to make one too many shadow jumps - worse, if we were one shadow-travel <em> away </em> from getting to Camp Half-Blood and this little detour was what made the difference - then I will kill myself, go to Tartarus, and bring back an army of hell to make this world miserable for you and your own.”</p><p>Hylla glanced down, as if just noticing the tiny girl was still in the room. If Ane were still who she appeared to be - little Rei, innocent and unaware of the dangers of the world and what it truly meant to be afraid - she might’ve folded under Hylla’s intense gaze.</p><p>“She has a point,” Reyna interjected before Hylla could speak. “You went to a lot of trouble. The queen of the Amazons and the lieutenant of Artemis both rushing to Puerto Rico on a moment’s notice to intercept us - pulling us here specifically, to one of your most important bases rather than attempting to pull us somewhere that was on our intended path. You needed to bring us to this place specifically, and I <em> know </em> that it wasn’t because you just couldn’t gather somewhere in the U.S.; you have more than enough Amazon bases to have come close enough to us, regardless of where we’d ended up. I’m guessing it’s not because you missed me and were feeling nostalgic.”</p><p>Phoebe the ginger-haired Hunter chuckled. “She’s smart.”</p><p>“Of course,” Hylla said. “I taught her everything she knows.”</p><p>Other Amazons started to gather around, probably sensing a potential fight. Amazons loved violent entertainment almost as much as pirates did.</p><p>“Orion,” Reyna guessed. “That’s what brought you here. His name got your attention.”</p><p>“I couldn’t let him kill you,” Hylla said.</p><p>Ane snorted. “It’s more than <em> that </em>.”</p><p>“Your mission to escort the Athena Parthenos-”</p><p>“-is important. But it’s more than that too,” Reyna interjected. “This is personal for you. And for the Hunters. What’s your game?”</p><p>Hylla ran her thumbs along her golden belt. “Orion is a problem. Unlike the other giants, Orion has been walking the earth for centuries. He takes a special interest in killing Amazons, or Hunters, or <em> any </em> female who dares to be strong.”</p><p>“Why would he want that?”</p><p>A ripple of dread seemed to pass through the girls around them.</p><p>Hylla looked at Phoebe. “Do you want to explain? You were there.”</p><p>The Hunter’s smile faded. “In the ancient times, Orion joined the Hunters. He was Lady Artemis’s best friend. He had no rivals at the bow - except for the goddess herself, and perhaps her brother, Apollo.”</p><p>Reyna shivered. Phoebe looked no more than fourteen. To think that she knew Orion three or four thousand years ago…</p><p>Ane was used to being underestimated when it came to her age. She looked like a four-year-old, but her Remnants spanned a couple centuries’ worth of experience. But even <em> she </em> marveled at Phoebe having been alive for so long. Immortality was very delicate; maintaining an air of normalcy was difficult, even for the best of them.</p><p>Ane thought of Winter - Famine, as she now supposedly went by. Surely Famine had dealt with Orion before; Famine was from that same era with the gods’ and Greek mythology.</p><p>“What went wrong?” Ane asked.</p><p>Phoebe’s ears reddened. “Orion crossed the line. He fell in love with Artemis.”</p><p>Hylla sniffed. “Always happens with men. They promise friendship; they promise to treat you as an equal. In the end, all they want is to possess you.”</p><p>“Not to defend Orion or anything, but sometimes men liked to be owned by women too,” Ane shrugged. “Real love <em> is </em> on an equal scale ownership between the two or more parties. And hey, women like to possess women too. It’s not a man thing <em> specifically </em> , it’s just…it happens with men more often because that’s how society built them, I guess. But <em> women </em> were supposedly built to be a pain on man’s ass, so do with that information as you will.”</p><p>“Continue, Phoebe,” Reyna prompted.</p><p>Phoebe picked at her thumbnail. Behind her, the other two Hunters, Naomi and Celyn, shifted uneasily.</p><p>“Lady Artemis rebuffed him, of course,” Phoebe said. “Orion became bitter. He started going on longer and longer trips by himself in the wilderness. Finally…I’m not sure what happened. One day Artemis came back to camp and told us Orion had been killed. She refused to speak of it.”</p><p>Hylla frowned, which accentuated the white scar across her brow. “Whatever the case, when Orion rose again from Tartarus, he was Artemis’s bitterest enemy. No one can hate you with more intensity than someone who used to love you.”</p><p>Reyna understood that. She thought back to a conversation she’d had with the goddess Aphrodite two years ago in Charleston…</p><p>“If he’s such a problem,” Reyna said, “why doesn’t Artemis simply slay him again?”</p><p>Phoebe grinned. “Easier said than done. Orion is sneaky. Whenever Artemis is with us, he stays far away. Whenever we Hunters are on our own, like we are now…he strikes without warning and disappears again. Our last lieutenant, Zoë Nightshade, spent centuries trying to track him down and kill him.”</p><p>“The Amazons have also tried,” Hylla said. “Orion doesn’t distinguish between us and the Hunters. I think we <em> all </em> remind him too much of Artemis. He sabotages our warehouses, disrupts our distribution centers, kills our warriors-”</p><p>“In other words,” Ane said dryly, “he’s getting in the way of your plans for world domination.”</p><p>Hylla shrugged. “Exactly.”</p><p>Ane crossed her arms with as much sass as a four-year-old could muster with her child-like babyface. “<em> That’s </em> why you rushed here to intercept us.”</p><p>Reyna continued, “You knew Orion would be right behind us. You’re setting up an ambush. We’re the bait.”</p><p>The other girls all found somewhere else to look besides the pair’s face.</p><p>“Oh please,” Reyna chided. “Don’t develop a guilty conscience now. It’s a good plan. How do we proceed?”</p><p>“You could’ve <em> told </em> me we were setting up a trap for that asshole,” Ane muttered. “I would’ve called in the cavalry. And <em> you </em> wouldn’t have had to waste a dozen tranquilizer darts. What can we do for you?”</p><p>Hylla gave her comrades a lopsided smile. “I told you my sister was tough. Phoebe, you want to explain the details?”</p><p>The Hunter shouldered her bow. “Like I said, I believe Orion is tracking <em> you </em>, not the Athena Parthenos. He seems especially good at sensing the presence of female demigods. I guess you’d say we’re his natural prey.”</p><p>“Charming,” Reyna said. “So my friends, Nico and Gleeson Hedge - are they safe?”</p><p>“I still don’t see why you travel with <em> males </em>,” Phoebe grumbled.</p><p>Ane held up fingers. “Because they didn’t get a choice at how they were born and because Nico is the only one available who can shadow-travel a forty-foot statue halfway across the planet,” she said flatly. “And Hedge has a wife we need to get him back to,” she added.</p><p>Phoebe shrugged. If around four thousand years of being male-phobic hadn’t made her at least understand the basic need for men at the base level, a few comments from Ane weren’t likely to do anything to change her opinion. “My guess is that they are safer without you two around. I did my best to camouflage your statue. With luck, Orion will follow you here, straight into our line of defense.”</p><p>“And then?” Reyna asked.</p><p>Hylla gave her the sort of cold smile that used to make Blackbeard’s pirates nervous. “Thalia and most of her Hunters are scouting the perimeter of Viejo San Juan. As soon as Orion gets close, we’ll know. We’ve set traps at every approach. I have my best fighters on alert. We’ll snare the giant. Then, one way or another, we’ll send him back to Tartarus.”</p><p>“<em> Can </em> he be killed?” Reyna asked. “I thought most giants could only be destroyed by a god and demigod working together.”</p><p>“We intend to find out,” Hylla said.</p><p>“If you don’t know for <em> sure </em>…I’ve got a friend I might be able to call in for backup that may have some godly blessings on her side that allow her to kill giants,” Ane offered.</p><p>Hylla raised an eyebrow. “Like I said, we shall see. Once Orion is taken down, your quest will be much easier. We’ll send you on your way with our blessings.”</p><p>“We could use more than your blessings,” Reyna said. “Amazons ship things all around the world. Why not provide safe transport for the Athena Parthenos? Get us to Camp Half-Blood before August first-”</p><p>“I can’t,” Hylla said. “If I could, sister, I would, but surely you’ve felt the anger radiating from the statue. We Amazons are honorary daughters of Ares. The Athena Parthenos would never tolerate our interference. Besides, you know how the Fates operate. For your quest to succeed, <em> you </em> have to deliver the statue personally.”</p><p>Reyna must’ve looked crestfallen.</p><p>Phoebe shoulder-bumped her like an over-friendly cat. “Hey, not so glum. We’ll help you as much as we can. The Amazon service department has repaired those metal dogs of yours. And we have some cool parting gifts!”</p><p>Celyn handed Phoebe a leather satchel.</p><p>Phoebe rummaged inside. “Let’s see…healing potions, tranquilizer darts like the ones we used on you, hmm…what else? Oh, yeah!” Phoebe triumphantly produced a rectangle of folded silvery cloth.</p><p>“Is that what I think it is?” Ane muttered.</p><p>“A handkerchief?” Reyna asked.</p><p>“Better. Back up a little.” Phoebe tossed the cloth on the floor. Instantly it expanded into a ten-by-ten camping tent. “It’s air-conditioned,” Phoebe said. “Sleeps four. It has a buffet table and sleeping bags inside. Whatever extra gear you put in will collapse with the tent. Um, within reason…don’t try to stick your giant statue in there.”</p><p>Ane got an amusing image of the Athena Parthenos half-stuck inside the collapsable tent.</p><p>Celyn snickered. “If your male traveling companions get annoying, you could always leave them inside.”</p><p>Naomi frowned. “That wouldn’t work…would it?”</p><p>“<em> Anyway </em>,” Phoebe said, “these tents are great. I have one just like it; use it all the time. When you’re ready to close it, the command word is Actaeon.”</p><p>“Uh, wasn’t he a hunter who got turned into a stag and eaten by his own hounds?” Ane muttered.</p><p>The tent collapsed into a tiny rectangle. Phoebe picked it up, stuffed it into the satchel, and handed the bag to Reyna.</p><p>“I…I don’t know what to say,” Reyna stammered. “Thank you.”</p><p>“Aww…” Phoebe shrugged. “It’s the least I can do for-”</p><p>Fifty feet away, a side door banged open. An Amazon ran straight towards Hylla. The newcomer wore a black pantsuit, her long auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail.</p><p>Reyna recognized her from the battle at Camp Jupiter. “Kinzie, isn’t it?”</p><p>The girl gave her a distracted nod. “Praetor.” She whispered something in Hylla’s ear.</p><p>Hylla’s expression hardened. “I see.” She glanced at Reyna. “Something is wrong. We’ve lost contact with the outer defenses. I’m afraid Orion-”</p><p>Behind then, the metal doors exploded.</p><p>Ane reached for her bag, but she realized she didn’t have it. Reyna reached for her sword, but she had been similarly disarmed.</p><p>“Get out of here!” Phoebe readied her bow.</p><p>Celyn and Naomi ran to the smoking doorway, only to be cut down by black arrows.</p><p>Phoebe screamed in rage. She returned fire as Amazons rushed forward with shields and swords.</p><p>“Don’t you dare die!” Ane shouted.</p><p>She turned and began running, tugging on the thin band that Sandy had given her back in Pompeii. ‘<em> Sandy! Sandy, we need help! </em>’</p><p>“Reyna!” Hylla pulled her arm. “We must leave!”</p><p>“We can’t just-”</p><p>“My guards will buy you time! Your quest <em> must </em> succeed!”</p><p>Reyna hated it, but she ran after Hylla with Ane.</p><p>They reached the side door and Reyna glanced back. Dozens of wolves - grey wolves like the ones in Portugal - surged into the warehouse. Amazons hurried to intercept them. The smoke-filled doorway was piled with bodies of the fallen: Celyn, Naomi, Phoebe. The ginger-haired Hunter who’d lived for thousands of years now sprawled unmoving, her eyes wide with shock, an oversized black-and-red arrow buried in her gut. The Amazon Kinzie charged forward, long knives flashing. She leaped over the bodies and into the smoke.</p><p>Ane turned and slammed her hands down onto the floor, aiming for the wolves and Orion and stretching out her power as far as she could. She threw 670’s melted silver death upon the wolves and Orion to at least slow him down. Remembering the story about Orion’s eyes, she included 294 - who had had her eyes stabbed out before her throat had been slit and she’d been stabbed in the chest over three dozen times.</p><p>Ane heard a dozen shrieks from wolves and one loud bellow from Orion before her vision went hazy and Hylla snatched the small child into her arm while pulling Reyna behind her into the passageway. Together, the two girls ran.</p><p>“They’ll all die!” Reyna yelled. “There must be something-”</p><p>“Don’t be stupid, sister!” Hylla’s eyes were bright with tears. “Orion outfoxed us. He’s turned the ambush into a massacre. All we can do now is hold him back while you escape. You <em> must </em> get that statue to the Greeks and defeat Gaea!”</p><p>“I bought…time,” Ane muttered. “A few lives may be saved. I’ve called for help. You must tell your people to hold out…giant-killing friend. To say it is not a massacre but a wait for survival…it will make them fight harder to live. Let’s hope she makes it…”</p><p>She hated the fact that her powers were so weak compared to in Tartarus. It seemed the longer she spent in the Overworld, the weaker she became. Her power reserves were running so low. At that point, even her new Remnants were an all-or-nothing effort - she could summon the great powers of the Primordial deaths Rei was having, but they would completely drain her. She’d be as useless as Nico after a shadow-travel.</p><p>Hylla led Reyna up a flight of stairs. They navigated a maze of corridors, then rounded a corner into a locker room. They found themselves face to face with a large grey wolf, but before the beast could even snarl, Hylla punched it between the eyes. The wolf crumbled.</p><p>“Over here.” Hylla ran to the nearest row of lockers. “Your weapons are inside. Hurry. Can you stand?”</p><p>Ane took a deep breath and summoned the power of her Remnants. She was running low, but she had enough to be more than a regular four-year-old, at least. “Yes.” Hylla set her on her feet and Ane bounced with new energy. “Can’t perform that little stunt again, but I can still be stronger than the average warrior.”</p><p>Ane grabbed her bag from Kaze and slung it over her shoulder. She dug out the cylinders from Kaze that could transform and morphed it into a bow. She clipped the quiver to the strap of her back on her back. Reyna grabbed her knife, her sword, and her pack. Then they followed Hylla up a circular metal stairwell.</p><p>The top dead-ended at a ceiling. Hylla turned and gave Reyna a stern look. “I won’t have time to explain this, all right? Stay strong. Stay close.”</p><p>Reyna wondered what could be worse than the scene they’d just left. Hylla pushed open the trapdoor and they climbed through…into their old home.</p><p>The great room was just as Reyna remembered. Opaque skylights glowed on the twenty-foot ceilings. The stark white walls were devoid of decoration. The furniture was oak, steel, and white leather - impersonal and masculine. Both sides of the room were overhung with terraces, which had always made Reyna feel like she was being watched (because often, she <em> was </em>). Their father had done everything he could to make the centuries-old hacienda feel like a modern home. He’d added the skylights, painted everything white to make it brighter and airier. But he’d only succeeded in making the place look like a well-groomed corpse in a new suit.</p><p>The trapdoor had opened into the massive fireplace. Why they even <em> had </em> a fireplace in Puerto Rico, Reyna had never understood, but she and Hylla used to pretend the hearth was a secret hideout where their father couldn’t find them. They used to imagine they could step inside and go to other places.</p><p>Now, Hylla had made that true. She had linked her underground lair to their childhood home.</p><p>“Hylla-”</p><p>“I told you, we don’t have time.”</p><p>“But-”</p><p>“I own the building now. I put the deed in my name.”</p><p>“You did <em> what? </em>”</p><p>“I was tired of running from the past, Reyna. I decided to reclaim it.”</p><p>Reyna stared at her, dumbfounded. You could reclaim a lost phone or a bag at the airport. You could even reclaim a hazardous waste dump. But this house, and what had happened here? There was <em> no </em> reclaiming that.</p><p>“Sister,” Hylla said, “we’re wasting time. Are you coming or not?”</p><p>“She’s right! Come <em> on </em> Reyna!” Ane shouted. “My familiar is with Nico and Hedge. We have to meet up with them!”</p><p>Reyna eyed the balconies, half expecting luminous shapes to flicker at the railing. “Have you seen them?”</p><p>“Some of them,” Hylla admitted.</p><p>“Papa?”</p><p>“Of course not,” Hylla snapped. “You know he’s gone for good.”</p><p>“I don’t know anything of the sort. How <em> could </em> you come back? Why?”</p><p>“To understand!” Hylla shouted. “Don’t you want to know how it happened to him?”</p><p>“No! You can’t learn anything from ghosts, Hylla. You of all people should realize-”</p><p>“I’m leaving,” Hylla announced. “Your friends are a few blocks away. Are you coming with me, or should I tell them you died because you got lost in the past?”</p><p>“<em> I’m </em> not the one who took possession of this place!”</p><p>Hylla turned on her heel and marched out the front door. Ane quickly followed behind, an arrow nocked in her bow.</p><p>Reyna looked around one more time. She remembered her last day here, when she was ten years old. She could almost hear her father’s angry roar echoing through the great room, the chorus of wailing ghosts on the balconies.</p><p>She ran for the exit. She burst into warm afternoon sunlight and found that the street hadn’t changed - the crumbling pastel houses, the blue cobblestones, dozens of cats sleeping under cars or in the shade of banana trees.</p><p>Reyna might have felt nostalgic…except that her sister stood a few feet away, facing Orion.</p><p>“Well, now.” The giant smiled. “Both daughters of Bellona together. Excellent!”</p><p>Ane almost felt offended. She had worked up an image of Orion as a towering ugly demon, as bad as or even worse than Polybotes or the other giants Rei had met before.</p><p>Instead, Orion could have passed for human - a tall, muscular, <em> handsome </em> human. His skin was the color of wheat toast; his dark hair was undercut, swept into spikes on top. With his black leather breeches and jerkin, his hunting knife, and his bow and quiver, he might have been Robin Hood’s evil, better-looking brother.</p><p>Only his eyes ruined the image. At first glance, he appeared to be wearing military night vision goggles. But they weren’t goggles. They were the work of Hephaestus - bronze mechanical eyes embedded in the giant’s sockets. Focusing rings spun and clicked as he regarded Reyna. Targeting lasers flashed red to green. Reyna got the uncomfortable impression he was seeing much more than her form - her heat signature, her heart rate, her level of fear.</p><p>At his side, he held a black composite bow almost as fancy as his eyes. Multiple strings ran through a series of pulleys that looked like miniature steam train wheels. The grip was polished bronze, studded with dials and buttons.</p><p>Ane made a mental grumble about Kaze’s bow being just as advanced.</p><p>Orion had no arrow nocked. He made no threatening movies. He smiled so dazzlingly it was hard to remember he was an enemy - someone who’d killed at least half a dozen Hunters and Amazons to get here.</p><p>Ane couldn’t tell how fast he’d be if she tried firing on his bionic eyes, but she knew from the light silver aura and red markings across his body that he’d both faced down many Amazons and Hunters already, and that her Remnants had done <em> some </em> damage to him, but not nearly enough. It probably would’ve been more effective if she’d physically been touching him at the time, but the distance combined with Ane’s weakening power had forced her to waste so much of her Remnant energy for so little result.</p><p>She wondered if Kaze’s weapons were strong enough to snap his bowstring. She wondered if she’d be able to smash his robotic eyes and break his body with what Remnant energy remained in her.</p><p>And she wondered what might happen if one of his arrows hit <em> her </em>. It was one thing for Rei to die and add to Ane’s numbers, but if Ane died she’d likely be sent back to Tartarus. A part of her actually missed the putrid air, the constant monsters, the terrible rivers pounding through the ground, the blackened sky filled with red lightning - the place that had been her home for so long.</p><p>But what she really missed was the power that death gave her. She missed being able to not fear death and to even encourage other monsters to challenge her. Soon enough, the creatures of Tartarus had learned to respect her.</p><p>She wished for that power and arrogance back now more than ever. Now, a part of her was actually afraid of death, afraid of going to Tartarus before her job here was done. So this was what mortality felt like. She was not jealous of her big sister, who would never even fear any afterlife, for she would always be kicked back to life any time she died. Ane wondered if Rei would <em> ever </em> get to know what fearing death was like.</p><p>Hylla drew her knives. “Reyna, go. I will deal with this monster.”</p><p>Orion chuckled. “Hylla Twice-Kill, you have courage. So did your lieutenants. They are dead.”</p><p>Hylla took a step forward.</p><p>Reyna grabbed her arm. “Orion! You have enough Amazon blood on your hands. Perhaps it’s time you try a Roman.”</p><p>The giant’s eyes clicked and dilated. Red laser dots floated across Reyna’s breastplate. “Ah, the young praetor. I admit, I’ve been curious. Before I slay you, perhaps you’ll enlighten me. Why would a child of Rome go to such lengths to help the Greeks? You have forfeited your rank, abandoned your legion, made yourself an outlaw - and for what? Jason Grace scorned you. Percy Jackson refused you. Haven’t you bee…what’s the word…<em> dumped </em> enough?”</p><p>Reyna’s ears buzzed. She recalled Aphrodite’s warning, two years ago in Charleston: ‘<em> You will not find love where you wish or where you hope. No demigod shall heal your heart </em>.’</p><p>She forced herself to meet the giant’s gaze. “I don’t define myself by the boys who may or may not like me. As for why I have chosen this path, it is because I would rather help Greeks than help an earth goddess who wishes both Greeks <em> and </em> Romans to perish - and the sickening giants who do her dirty work.”</p><p>“Brave words.” The giant’s smile was infuriating. “But you are no different from the Amazons, or the Hunters, or Artemis herself. You speak of strength and independence. As soon as you face a man of <em> true </em> prowess, your confidence crumbles. You feel threatened by my dominance, and how it <em> attracts </em> you. So you run, or you surrender, or you die.”</p><p>Hylla shrugged off Reyna’s hand. “I will kill you, giant. I will chop you into pieces so small-!”</p><p>“Hylla,” Reyna interrupted. Whatever else happened here, she could <em> not </em> watch her sister die.</p><p>Ae almost laughed. “You think you’re a man of <em> prowess? </em> That I fear your <em> dominance? </em> Ha! I felt more threatened by a bucket of <em> water </em> than you!” And sadly, it was actually a true statement.</p><p>The giant’s eyes turned to Ane. “Humph. The monster from Tartarus. You are no better than I am, child. In death, perhaps, we may go to the same place; I have heard the whispers from the others of who and what you were within the Pit. But in <em> this </em> world, I have the advantage. Your pitiful attempts at stopping me were just as pathetic as the Amazons and the Hunters.”</p><p>“We’ll meet in hell again one day, Orion, there’s no doubting that, and you’ll get to see what I can do first-hand. But here and now, I can assure you, I’m far more than that little display back there. You think you’re all hot stuff, eh? It’s quite the opposite, actually. <em> You’re </em> the one threatened by a woman with true prowess, a woman is dominant and doesn’t <em> need </em> you. In fact, maybe <em> you’re </em> the one who’s threatened by how <em> you </em> ended up attracted to Artemis. Isn’t love just a <em> bitch?! </em> Ya know, Cupid was pretty good with a bow too. I bet he’d kick <em> your </em> ass - in fact, he already did, didn’t he? Wasn’t it love that ultimately got you kicked to the curb? It’s amusing, isn’t it?! You claim to be strong, yet you couldn’t keep the vows of the Hunt. You died rejected, and now you’re running errands for your mother. So tell me again, how exactly are <em> you </em> threatening?”</p><p>Orion’s jaw muscles clenched. His smile became thinner and colder.</p><p>“A good try,” he admitted. “You’re hoping to unbalance me. You think, perhaps, if you keep me talking, reinforcements will save you. Alas, child of Tartarus, there <em> are </em> no reinforcements. I burned the little queen’s underground lair with her own Greek fire. No one survived.”</p><p>Hylla roared and attacked. Orion hit her with the butt of his bow. She flew backwards into the street. Orion pulled an arrow from his quiver.</p><p>“Stop!” Reyna yelled. Her heart hammered in her rib cage. She needed to find the giant’s weakness.</p><p>Barrachina was only a few blocks away. If they could make it that far, Nico might be able to shadow-travel them away. And the Hunters couldn’t <em> all </em> be dead…they’d been patrolling the entire perimeter of the old city. Surely some of them were still out there…</p><p>“Reinforcements don’t have to be Amazons, asshole!” Ane shouted. “I’m sending out a signal right now, and <em> you </em> won’t like what’s coming! Only way to stop it would be to kill me - if you’re afraid of who I called, that is.”</p><p>Ane deliberately let her hand tremble and her doubt show. In all honesty, she didn’t know if Sandy had gotten her message or if Sandy was tracking her with reinforcements on the way. But if Orion thought she was bluffing, then he’d underestimate them, one way or another. If reinforcements <em> did </em> come, then Orion wouldn’t be expecting it. Even if reinforcements <em> didn’t </em> come, Orion couldn’t be sure if Ane was bluffing or not. It would make him hesitate, and Ane’s familiar was with Nico and Hedge. They just needed to get to the statue and Ane might be able to summon the power to take Reyna and even Hylla into the shadow-travel too. If only she could somehow communicate to Nico to shadow-travel. And if it worked over such a long distance…</p><p>“Orion, you asked what motivates me,” Reyna interjected. She kept her voice loud and level, her posture straight and imposing. She wanted the attention on her. “Don’t you want your answer before you kill us? Surely it must puzzle you, why women keep rejecting a big handsome guy like you.”</p><p>The giant nocked his arrow. “Now you have mistaken me for Narcissus. I cannot be flattered.”</p><p>Ane scoffed. “Narcissus can’t be flattered by anything but his own damn reflection. Believe me, <em> no one’s </em> as bad as Narcissus.”</p><p>“Of course you can’t be flattered,” Reyna said. Hylla rose with a murderous look on her face, but Reyna reached out with her senses, trying to share with her sister the most important kind of strength - restraint. “Still…it must infuriate you. First you were dumped by a mortal princess-”</p><p>“Merope.” Orion sneered. “A beautiful girl, but stupid. If she’d had any sense, she would have understood I was flirting with her.”</p><p>“Let me guess,” Reyna said. “She screamed and called for the guards instead.”</p><p>“I was without my weapons at the time. You don’t bring your bow and knives when you’re courting a princess. The guards took me easily. Her father the king had me blinded and exiled.”</p><p>Just above their heads, a pebble skittered across a clay-tiled roof. It might have been her imagination, but Reyna remembered that sound from the many nights Hylla would sneak out of her own locked room and creep across the roof to check on her.</p><p>Ane knew the best way to resist looking up was to distract herself - and Orion as well. “But you got new eyes,” she said to the giant. “Hephaestus took pity on you.”</p><p>“Yes…” Orion’s gaze became unfocused. Reyna could tell, because the laser targets disappeared from her chest. “I ended up on Delos, where I met Artemis. Do you know how strange it is to meet your mortal enemy and end up being attracted to her?” He laughed. “Praetor, what am I saying? Of <em> course </em> you know. Perhaps you feel for the Greeks as I felt for Artemis - a guilty fascination, an admiration that turns to love. But too much love is poison, especially when that love is not returned. If you do not understand that already, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, you soon will.”</p><p>Hylla limped forward, her knives still in hand. “Sister, why do you let this beast talk? Let’s put him down.”</p><p>“Can you?” Orion mused. “Many have tried. Even Artemis’s own brother, Apollo, was not able to kill me back in the ancient times. He had to use trickery to get rid of me.”</p><p>“He didn’t like you hanging out with his sister?” Reyna listened for more sounds from the roofs, but heard nothing.</p><p>“Apollo was jealous.” The giant’s fingers curled around his bowstring. He drew it back, setting the bow’s wheels and pulleys spinning. “He feared I might charm Artemis into forgetting her vows of maidenhood. And who knows? Without Apollo’s interference, perhaps I would have. She would have been happier.”</p><p>“As your servant?” Hylla growled. “Your meek little housewife?”</p><p>“You forget who is the elder of the twins,” Ane smirked. “My Papa’s father may boast his superiority, but Artemis is the only one who makes decisions in her own life. She probably ordered Apollo to take you out - and if he couldn’t do it, she’d have done it herself.”</p><p>“It hardly matters now, to ponder what we cannot know,” Orion said. “At any rate, Apollo inflicted me with madness - a bloodlust to kill all the beasts of the earth. I slaughtered thousands before my mother, Gaea, finally put a stop to my rampage. She summoned a giant scorpion from the earth. It stabbed me in the back and its poison killed me. I owe her for that.”</p><p>“You owe Gaea,” Reyna said, “for killing you.”</p><p>Orion’s mechanical pupils spiraled into tiny, glowing points. “My mother showed me the truth. I was fighting against my own nature, and it brought me nothing but misery. Giants are not <em> meant </em> to love mortals or gods. Gaea helped me accept what I am. Eventually, we all must return home, Praetor. We must embrace our past, no matter how bitter and dark.” He nodded his chin towards the villa behind her. “Just as you have done. You have your own share of ghosts, eh?”</p><p>“Well maybe you could’ve lived a nice, peaceful life <em> without </em> love, you egomaniac,” Ane grumbled. “I happen to know a giant who was perfectly happy choosing his own path.”</p><p>“And where is he now, small one? You think we haven’t heard the warnings of Damasen and his folly? You think we don’t know of his sorry fate in Tartarus, and his even more pitiful end attempting to stand against his father?”</p><p>Ane tightened her grip on her bow. “At least he died for what he believed in, and I will not let you insult his good name! He’s the best of your kind - and he proved that the only reason you suffered is because you’re an arrogant prat who makes your <em> own </em> misery and then goes around whining and blaming others like the babies you are!”</p><p>Reyna drew her sword and stepped forward. ‘<em> You can’t learn anything from ghosts </em>,’ she had told her sister. Perhaps she couldn’t learn anything from giants, either.</p><p>“This is not my home,” she said. “And we are not alike.”</p><p>“I have seen the truth.” The giant sounded truly sympathetic. “You cling to the fantasy that you can make your enemies love you. You cannot, Reyna. There is no love for you at Camp Half-Blood.”</p><p>Aphrodite’s words echoed in her head: ‘<em> No demigod shall heal your heart. </em>’</p><p>“Hey, asshole, ever heard of platonic lo-?!”</p><p>Reyna put her hand on Ane’s shoulder to stop her.</p><p>Reyna studied the giant’s handsome, cruel face, his glowing mechanical eyes. For a terrible moment, she could understand how even a goddess, even an eternal maiden like Artemis, might fall for Orion’s honeyed words.</p><p>“You say my words will not work on you, but yours will not work on me, either. As Ane said, I do not intend to complete this quest expecting love. I do this for my camp, my people - and Greek or Roman, demigods are my people.”</p><p>Orion snorted. “I could have killed you twenty times by now,” the giant said. “You realize that, don’t you? Let me spare you. A simple show of faith is all I need. Tell me where the statue is.”</p><p>Reyna almost dropped her sword. ‘<em> Where the statue is… </em>’</p><p>Orion hadn’t located the Athena Parthenos. The Hunters’ camouflage had worked. All this time, the giant had been tracking Reyna, which meant that even if she died right now, Nico and Coach Hedge might stay safe. The quest was not doomed.</p><p>Reyna felt as if she’d shed a hundred pounds of armor. She laughed. The sound echoed down the cobblestone street.</p><p>“Phoebe outsmarted you! By tracking me, you lost the statue. Now my friends are free to continue their mission.”</p><p>Ane resisted the urge to purse her lips. Reyna was still needed - a Roman leader was the only one who could return the Athena Parthenos to the Greeks and heal the rift between the camps. Ane tightened her grip on her bow. If it meant that she had to return to Tartarus, she would make sure Reyna made it out of his alive. But she would take Orion back down to the Pit with her.</p><p>Orion curled his lips. “Oh, I will find them, Praetor. After I deal with you.”</p><p>“Then I suppose,” Reyna said, “we will have to deal with you first.”</p><p>“<em> That </em> is my sister,” Hylla said proudly.</p><p>Together, the sisters charged.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. The Wrath of Women</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Second part of a double update with so much battle-scene-ness. Woot!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Famine</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No…no you can’t kill Percy! Percy is a part of the Prophecy of Seven! You can kill me, you can kill our team, but if the Seven don’t make it to Athens, then the whole </span>
  <em>
    <span>world</span>
  </em>
  <span> is doomed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emily was clinging to the cold bars of her cage as though she might break free with sheer force. Famine wanted to say she wasn’t surprised by Emily’s reaction, but she was admittedly a bit startled. For a girl without her powers, she still felt imposing to Famine. Even through the bars of her prison cell, even under the assurance that she didn’t have any of her manipulation powers, Famine still felt like Emily could touch her soul and manipulate her into feeling what she hadn’t felt in many, many years.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In defeating Gaea, only Storm and Fire is required - one of Storm of Fire shall die. That is Jason Grace or Leo Valdez. Perseus Jackson was only needed as one of seven demigods to sail upon this Argo II, to close the Doors of Death. His only potential role now is to be sacrificed to Gaea, his blood spilt in the ancient land to awaken the goddess. Would it not be a mercy for him to not be the instrument of Gaea’s awakening?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re saying you’d rather have someone else die in Gaea’s efforts to wake up </span>
  <em>
    <span>along with</span>
  </em>
  <span> Percy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re saying you’d rather have Perseus be Gaea’s sacrifice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No! I don’t want </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be a sacrifice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boss will decide the role we play in the battle in Athens, whether we are to help you fight the giants or whether we assist in their destruction of the gods - if we are even to get that far. If Boss does not get her way and Perseus is to live, do you believe your friends will be any happier when we wipe them out along with their precious parents?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You…you can’t. If the gods fall and Gaea wins, this world-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Blood shall be spilt, one way or another, Emily Hezesto. It is time you stop daydreaming and face reality.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?! Why do you…why are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>here?!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Why are you helping us and threatening us and acting like this is all just a game and you’re just a spectator capable of knocking down whatever piece feels more entertaining?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because this </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> just a game. Boss is powerful, but she needs me to run errands for her and take her to those who none other can reach herself. The downfall of the gods has been foreshadowed since even ancient times, and regardless of whether it happens now or if it happens hundreds and thousands of years in the future, it </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> happen. Times change. We are playing with fire, perhaps, but regardless, we will ride out the storm one way or another. It’s all up to Boss’s final decision, whether she decides to support the gods or be an instrument of their downfall.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You…you of all people should understand what it means to lose family - to lose </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>, to lose your people…but perhaps you have forgotten. Just like you’ve forgotten what it means to feel for everything else.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine felt something stir within her. She wanted to protest that she still knew what it meant to care. She still knew what it meant to care about the warriors who fought by her side. She watched and observed the others in their team. She knew how every one of them would react to a certain situation, their preferences and aversions, how to speak with each of them, and even how they entertained her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She thought of their movie nights…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thudding footsteps came sprinting down the metal halls of the prison hold. To Famine’s surprise, it was Sandman.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine pushed her hair so that she was on her feet again. “Sandman, what brings you here? And in </span>
  <em>
    <span>person</span>
  </em>
  <span>, no less?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine often pitied Sandman. The youngest member of Boss’s team, Sandman was also incapable of much physical fighting. Even in battles where Sandman was useful, Sandman needed to be asleep and his physical body was left vulnerable. That being said, his Astral Projection was a skilled technique that was growing stronger and stronger each day. Dream and Death were often associated as siblings, and Sandman was able to act as a strong poltergeist-like a powerful ghost when Projecting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Emergency!” he panted. “Need you! Now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandman grabbed Famine’s arm and began pulling on her. Famine allowed Sandman to drag her away. Famine didn’t look back towards Emily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They exited the prison hold, closing and locking the heavy metal door behind them. Famine had no idea why they needed such a secure door when the prison was secure with no powers for the prisoners, but she didn’t object to overcaution, and if Forge made something the way he made it, there wasn’t room for debate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandman took her across the fields and to the temporary camp of their team. Their tents were lined up in a long U-shape with a meeting center in the middle, half inside a tent, half outside. Sandman appeared to have already gathered a few of the others as well - Lust, Pestilence, Pain, Seven, War, and Iota. All of the women except for Boss. Unless, of course, you discounted Mirage, who was…both? Neither? Famine didn’t delve too deeply into it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> this?” Famine voiced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow suggestively. “Now I don’t want to be ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>that girl</span>
  </em>
  <span>’-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like we believe </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> lie,” Pain muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-but Sandy dear gathering this many women together-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please don’t say what I know you’re suggesting even though you know it’s not true,” Seven begged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a genuine emergency!” Sandman blurted. “We don’t have time to be joking around!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right, all right, can we just let Sandy </span>
  <em>
    <span>speak?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Iota prompted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her placating personality reminded Famine of Emily, though unlike Emily, Iota didn’t have the actual magic power that could control others and give that sweeping calm that overwhelmed all irrational anxiety. Like a breath of fresh air after years in a suffocating, dank, rotten dungeon. She didn’t have the same incredible peace that Emily could offer Famine, nor the wave of warmth that came from feeling emotion that Famine had forgotten about ages ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead, Sandy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s Ane. She contacted me! Emergency! Orion!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Orion?” Pain repeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War punched a fist into her palm and cracked her knuckles. “What </span>
  <em>
    <span>about</span>
  </em>
  <span> him? Can I finally wreck that misogynistic brat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do what you will, but you have to stop him! He’s slaughtered the Amazons and the Hunters of Artemis! He’s going after Ane! A-And the others escorting the statue.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The girls shared glances.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boss didn’t order a mission,” Pain finally said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But we can’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>abandon</span>
  </em>
  <span> them!” Iota argued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Amazons and the Hunters aren’t any concern of ours,” Lust pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He slaughtered </span>
  <em>
    <span>hundreds</span>
  </em>
  <span> of women simply because he thinks we’re weak!” Pestilence protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not just weak,” Sandman corrected. “Because he believes women should be subservient, that they are afraid of him because he’s…oh, what were his words?” Sandy held up his hand and a projection of a man with mechanical eyes that were definitely the work of Hephaestus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooo, he’s a hunk,” Lust crooned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s a murderer and a women-hater,” Seven corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hologram of Orion spoke: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You are no different from the Amazons, or the Hunters, or Artemis herself. You speak of strength and independence. As soon as you face a man of true prowess, your confidence crumbles. You feel threatened by my dominance, and how it attracts you. So you run, or you surrender, or you die</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War cracked her knuckles again. “Oh, I’m gonna beat the </span>
  <em>
    <span>shit</span>
  </em>
  <span> out of that little motherfu-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota clapped a hand over War’s mouth. “Language! There are children present.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like none of us haven’t heard worse,” Pain shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So will you help?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Boss said that we can’t kill Orion yet,” Pestilence pointed out. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>But</span>
  </em>
  <span> that doesn’t mean we can’t chase him off. And give him a good beating in the meantime. Right War?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m all for a good beating,” she agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> can give him something painful. Maybe some STDs on that little di-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Language!” Iota snapped again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, sparky,” War shrugged. “Don’t ya wanna just zap some sense into that mofo?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota cleared her throat and stood up straight like she was about to give an official speech. “As a responsible adult, I do not believe in such brutal, unsanctioned violence based on personal emotional instability. Especially when Boss isn’t around to give the order!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You approve of Ane and that other Reyna chick getting the crap kicked out of them or - more likely - getting </span>
  <em>
    <span>killed</span>
  </em>
  <span> by that misogynistic brat who just insulted women as though us rejecting his rapey vibes somehow means we’re ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>intimidated</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and afraid of being ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>attracted</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ to him?” Pain drawled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota flushed. It was almost too easy to invoke Iota’s emotions, both her fears about her being expected to fight Zeus as well as her kind nature who didn’t like violence overall. “Well I…no…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then it’s settled.” Pestilence laced her fingers together and stretched out her arms to crack her fingers and then shook out her wrists. “Let’s go kick some misogynistic giant butt!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, guys?” Seven announced. “Aren’t we forgetting something? We can’t get there unless Famine agrees to provide us transport.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Half a dozen pairs of female eyes fell onto Famine (and also Sandman’s).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Logically, Famine knew she should ask Boss first. Going into </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> without Boss’s permission could have catastrophic consequences considering Boss’s careful planning with her Third Eye technique. But she was the only one present that knew about Boss’s ability. It wasn’t like she was at risk of revealing it - all she had to do was say she didn’t want to do anything without Boss’s permission, and all she had to do was threaten to go tell Boss what was happening. Even working together, all of them probably couldn’t stop her - though they would certainly be a nuisance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But for some reason, Famine knew that she didn’t want to tell Boss. Something told her that Boss probably already knew, considering all her Third Eye planning. So Boss probably already knew that Famine felt an annoyingly strong pulse within her heart that had already sealed her choice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Let’s…kick his ass.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right!” War pumped a fist into the air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandman breathed a sigh of relief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Prepare yourselves,” Famine warned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh, I hate traveling like this,” Lust muttered. She reached up and plugged her nose as if she were diving into a pool of sludge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just for that, you’re getting a cactus.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant’s first shot would have skewered Reyna, but Hylla was fast. She sliced the arrow out of the air and lunged at Orion while Reyna stabbed at his chest. The giant intercepted both of their attacks with his bow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s when Ane shot an arrow through the bow and into Orion’s face, but as she feared, his mechanical eyes were more durable than she gave them credit for. She had hit him right between the eyes, but he still kicked Hylla backwards into the hood of an old Chevy. Half a dozen cats scattered from underneath it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant spun, a dagger suddenly in his hand, and Reyna just managed to dodge the blade as Ane shot another arrow and forced Orion to dodge as well. Reyna stabbed again, ripping through his leather jerkin, but only managed to graze his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You fight well, Praetor,” he admitted. “But not well enough to live.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna willed her blade to extend into a pilum. “My death means nothing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If her friends could continue their quest in peace, she was fully prepared to go down fighting. But first she intended to hurt this giant so badly he would never forget her name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about your sister’s death?” Orion asked. “Does that mean something?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Faster than Reyna could blink, he sent an arrow flying towards Hylla’s chest. A scream built in Reyna’s throat, but somehow Hylla </span>
  <em>
    <span>caught</span>
  </em>
  <span> the arrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane snorted. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> there was some strength in you yet, miss queen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla slid off the hood of the car and snapped the arrow with one hand. “I am the queen of the Amazons, you idiot. I wear the royal belt. With the strength it gives me, I will avenge the Amazons you killed today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla grabbed the front fender of the Chevy and flipped the entire car towards Orion, as easily as if she were splashing him with water in a swimming pool. The Chevy sandwiched Orion against the wall of the nearest house. Stucco cracked, a banana tree toppled, more cats fled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna ran towards the wreckage, but the giant bellowed and shoved the car away, Ane pulled Reyna out of the way of the carnage just in time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will die together!” he promised. Two arrows appeared nocked in his bow, the string fully drawn back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then the rooftops exploded with noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“DIE!” Gleeson Hedge dropped directly behind Orion, smacking his baseball bat over the giant’s head so hard the Louisville Slugger cracked in half.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane dropped her bow and dived forward, snatching Orion’s weapon and repositioning it in his hands, not trying to wrench it from his grasp, but aiming it just as Nico di Angelo dropped in front of the giant. He slashed his Stygian sword across the giant’s bowstring, causing pulleys and gears to zip and creak. Ane let go of the weapon and shoved Nico out of the way just as the string recoiled with hundreds of pounds of force until it whacked Orion in the nose like a hydraulic bullwhip.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“OOOOOOOOW!!!” Orion staggered backwards, dropping his bow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane snatched up her own weapon as her familiar jumped on her head eagerly like it had just won a game of hide-and-seek having found Ane. “Do!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane joined dozens of Hunters of Artemis who appeared along the rooftops, shooting Orion full of silver arrows until he resembled a glowing hedgehog. He staggered blindly, holding his nose, his face streaming with golden ichor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Someone grabbed Reyna’s arm. “Come on!” Thalia Grace had returned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go with her!” Hylla ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s heart felt like it was shattering. “Sister-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have to leave! NOW!” It was exactly what Hylla had said to her six years ago, the night they escaped their father’s house. “I’ll delay Orion as long as possible.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla grabbed one of the giant’s legs. She yanked him off balance and tossed him several blocks down the Calle San Jose, to the general consternation of several dozen more cats. The Hunters ran after him along the rooftops, shooting arrows that exploded in Greek fire, wreathing the giant in flames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A Remnant for the road!” Ane shouted, shooting an arrow towards Orion with the power of 941 - the one who had been shot in the chest half a dozen times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your sister’s right,” Thalia said. “You need to go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico and Hedge fell in alongside them, both looking very pleased with themselves. They had apparently gone shopping at the Barrachina souvenir shop, where they’d replaced their dirty tattered shirts with loud tropical numbers. Even Ane’s poodle had a new little dress.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico,” Reyna said, “you look-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not a word about the shirt,” he warned. “Not one word.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why did you come looking for me?” Reyna demanded. “You could have gotten away free. The giant has been tracking </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span>. If you had just left-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re welcome, cupcake,” the coach grumbled. “We weren’t about to leave without you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately, you’re pretty important to this quest, Reyna,” Ane agreed. “So let’s just take this opportunity to…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s blood ran cold. Her senses started humming louder and louder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do…” her poodle muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The second-story balconies of Reyna’s family home were crowded with glowing figures: a man with a forked beard and rusted conquistador armor; another bearded man in eighteenth-century pirate clothes, his shirt peppered with gunshot holes; a lady in a bloody nightgown; a U.S. Navy captain in his dress whites; and a dozen more Reyna knew from her childhood - all of them glaring at her accusingly, their voices whispering through the air: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Traitor. Murderer.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No…” Reyna felt like she was ten years old again. She wanted to curl up in the corner of her room and press her hands over her ears to stop the whispering.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico took her arm. “Reyna, who are they? What do they-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t,” she pleaded. “I…I can’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d spent so many years building a damn inside her to hold back the fear. Now, it broke. Her strength washed away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s all right.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane held her hand up and the ghosts were dispelled. It felt like she was trying to scrub away a stain that had already permanently bleached a fabric. The ghosts disappeared, but they couldn’t fully be cleansed - at least not by Ane. Nico appeared to be trying as well, but facing the same problem.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna knew they would </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> really be gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll get you out of here,” Nico promised. “Let’s move.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane glanced back at the Hunters and Hylla, who she could hear fighting a screaming and raging Orion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t worry,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ a soft voice whispered to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Sandy!</em>
  </b>
  <span>’ Ane called in her mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>We will protect them. No more shall perish here, to this giant, on this day. Go.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane nodded to thin air, unnoticed by her companions as they simply took it as encouragement to get Reyna and the others to the statue so they could get out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thalia took Reyna’s other arm as the five of them hurried for the restaurant and the Athena Parthenos. Behind them, they could hear Orion roaring in pain, Greek fire exploding. Ane felt the subtle rumbling of the ground as new challengers screamed out and more heavy hits were thrown. Ane wondered who Sandy had brought, how many he’d brought, and if he was getting in trouble for aiding Ane. She would thank Sandy in every way she could next time they met.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But among all the chaos, Ane still heard the whispers of the dead - voices that didn’t project through the air naturally, but ones who were projecting their message directly into the mind of whoever could hear. An angry hiss of many voices, all speaking accusingly: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Murderer. Traitor. You can never flee your crime.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Famine</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Upon arriving, the fireworks had already started.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hunters of Artemis were beating the giant Orion with all the Greek fire and arrows that they had. The giant’s bow had already been snapped, and any time it looked like the giant was starting to make headway against the attacks, the Amazon queen Hylla punched him hard in solar plexus or grabbed him by the leg and threw him into the pavement. Cats were fleeing the scene.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, none of them intervened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look at them go,” Lust crooned. “And Sandy was </span>
  <em>
    <span>worried</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re not hurting him,” Pain announced. “Just inconveniencing him. He feels pinpricks of arrows and the burning of fire, but he heals. They’re keeping him off balance, but it won’t last long. All he has to do is stay down for longer than he needs to so he can gather his bearings, and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The odds say he’ll break free,” Seven agreed. “Only a matter of time. Right about…now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hunters jumped back as Orion roared and the arrows that had been impeded within the giant shot out in all directions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooo, looks like he missed them all,” Seven muttered. “How unfortunate - or fortunate, depending on how you look at it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hunters began firing more arrows, keeping their distance, but Orion began swatting them away with more than enough speed to keep up with the dozens of arrows coming his way at a time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Foolish children! I will end you here and now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla moved to punch the giant, and while he reached out to catch her fist, she ducked down and swept his legs out from under him in a fake-out. But he caught himself and recovered with incredible speed, swatting Hylla back and into another building.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>This</span>
  </em>
  <span> place sure isn’t long for this world,” Pestilence sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lust, get the Hunters to retreat,” Famine ordered. “Their preemptive has bought all the time it can without any losses. It’s our turn now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War slipped on some gloves from Forge with metal knuckles. “Finally. </span>
  <em>
    <span>My</span>
  </em>
  <span> turn to bash him!” She knocked her fists together. “Hand-to-hand. So much more…personal! You get to feel the life sucked out of them in your own bones, skin, and blood!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She jumped from the rooftops and came down upon Orion from above. The giant looked up and saw her - War would hardly knew the definition of ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>subtle</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ if it weren’t for Boss ordering it on certain missions - but regardless, he put up his hands to meet her fists and still the two went crashing down into the asphalt with booming force.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get out of here, darlings, you did well,” Lust whispered. “It’s the better option to…</span>
  <em>
    <span>leave</span>
  </em>
  <span>~”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust’s power swept over the area. Despite the confusion in the Hunters, against their judgment to get revenge for their many fallen comrades, the Hunters muttered among themselves for only a few moments before engaging in a retreat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve gotten the leader - Thalia - to join their retreat,” Lust reported. “She’s coming back from the successful departure of the Athena Parthenos and its party. But…that one’s a tougher nut to crack. She lost far more of her people, after all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Down on ground level, War and Orion were wrestling, with Orion grunted in strain and War laughing with joy. But Hylla was recovering from being thrown for the dozenth time that day and rushing into the battle once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s a queen who’s had to work hard for that position,” Pain shrugged. “She feels the pain of her people as her own - she feels the responsibility of all those who died under her leadership. You’ve heard the stories of Hylla Twice-Kill.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She had to kill an old Amazonian queen during those days when monsters wouldn’t stay dead,” Iota recalled. “She fought the mad lady twice and won so that she could lead the Amazons to help her sister rather than fight them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The </span>
  <em>
    <span>first</span>
  </em>
  <span> Amazon queen, she fought,” Famine corrected. “Otrera.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooo, fancy,” Lust muttered. “She’s a stubborn one, all right. I could try a little harder…but then again this is just getting interesting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War was trading blows with Orion, though it was unclear whether she was allowing herself to get hit or not. War was a bit masochistic, so when she found an opponent who could actually stand up to her, she never liked to end it quickly. None of them really knew just how strong War really was, when she was holding back for fun, or if she ever struggled. Lust fed War’s mild megalomania by giving her rushes of adrenaline, sending waves of pleasure through War that made her neglect her health even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> than War’s berserker powers already made her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla was able to join in and clock Orion dead between the mechanical eyes. “This is for the Amazons you’ve slaughtered today!” She reared back and kneed him in the groin before then giving him a powerful right-hook in the temple. “And the Hunters who you have massacred!” She kicked him in the chin and then wrapped her hands around his throat. “For the lives you have taken because </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> can’t get over your inflated ego!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War brought her foot down on the giant’s wrist. “Ah, ah, ah, I see that magic energy building. No more weapons, sweetie-pie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion used his other free hand to punch Hylla in the stomach, sending her flying off of him, but Famine summoned a large wave of vines to create a cradle to catch her. War jumped up and away before Orion could grab her ankle and throw her too, back-flipping across the pavement of the road.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Make it hurt, ladies,” she ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You cannot kill me! I am a giant, and you do not have the power of the gods! You may be fast and strong, little queen, but I am faster and stronger, and I heal faster than you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held his arms out to prove his point as his wounds healed before their very eyes - broken teeth and skin healing, lacerations and holes and burns regenerating rapidly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War spit a slight bit of blood from her mouth to the side. “Good. That means I get to use you as a punching bag for a little longer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My sister and the statue are gone,” Hylla announced as she slid to her feet from Famine’s cradle that caught her. “We need only keep you here as long as possible to give them more time before you can track them down.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you even know who we </span>
  <em>
    <span>are?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” War crooned, tilting her head to the side. “I mean I assumed all the giants were in the loop. My name is War. And I ain’t an Amazon. And these are my associates.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust summoned an atrociously bright, fire-engine red slide and slid down from the rooftop onto the street level. “Lust.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain was fiddling with a dagger and didn’t even glance up as she rose to her feet and hopped down beside Lust, merely bending her legs as the pavement beneath her cracked rather than her legs. “Pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seven,” she sighed, remaining on the rooftop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pestilence.” She opted to use Lust’s slide to get down safely, though she didn’t look too pleased by it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota followed down with a small “Wooo.” She held her hand up meekly. “I’m Iota. Hi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I am Boss,” a voice announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All eyes locked onto said leader of the team, who was now standing in the road across from the scuffle with Orion. Across the rest of the rooftops, the boys were lounging around. Hatter and Mirage appeared to be sitting with a full-on picnic, Hatter holding a bottle of wine in his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held it up as if in salute. “Great job Tilly! You go girl!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pestilence rolled her eyes. “Who invited the peanut gallery?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Technically, I did,” Boss announced, stepping forward. “Orion, is it? Hm, it seems my team has barely laid a scratch on you yet. What was taking so long?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m still having my fun!” War snapped. “Get in line.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine noticed Quake standing in the shadows of a small alley between buildings, watching Boss closely as well as Orion. Forge was sitting on a rooftop beside Hatter and Mirage, playing on what looked to be a Nintendo DSI, not even paying attention. Sandman was sitting next to him, looking slightly chastised - probably by Boss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re in charge of these people?” Hylla asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss nodded. “And you are Hylla, queen of the Amazons. I take it Orion has dealt a great blow to your numbers today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla’s face was cold and malicious as Boss’s. “And he will continue to pay for each death swiftly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will not perish on this day, Hylla Ramírez-Arellano. But if you wish to see Orion suffer, then you need only sit back and allow my ladies to do as they please. We have a rare opportunity here - we’ve been allowed to toy with this giant as we wish. And my ladies certainly don’t appreciate him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think you can toy with me, child?” Orion grumbled. He held out his hand and energy gathered within his palm, expanding outwards until light formed a new bow for him. “I will tear your warriors apart and this queen before I locate her sister and slaughter her as well. No matter how far they run, I will hunt her regardless.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hylla’s murderous gaze set on Orion. “You will do no such thing. Your life will end here and now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bold world for one who hardly has the strength of the gods on her side. Artemis hides like a coward, the gods are split and none who still have their wits about them aid you now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine knew that she couldn’t interfere or risk killing the giant - which wouldn’t be allowed to happen until Boss said it was okay, and she hadn’t. But Famine could help its overwhelming hatred coursing through her. She hadn’t felt this kind of overwhelming pain in a long time - it was the sorrow and rage of so many lost comrades and soldiers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine felt as though she’d been struck by Iota’s lightning. She fished her hand into her uniform’s pocket and retrieved one of the pulsating Animi Motus stones. It was radiating the pain of the queen Hylla - as well as stirring something else within </span>
  <em>
    <span>Famine</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can still be killed,” Boss shrugged, pulling Famine out of her thoughts. “You haven’t met my final female team member.” She waved her hand up to Famine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine,” she said simply. Was Boss saying that Famine was allowed to kill Orion, here and now?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Though she will not participate in this battle. Not yet. First, I believe my people haven’t had a proper punching bag in a long time. Time to see how well you fight against a giant. You’ll need practice for the ones in Athens - who are much bigger.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion huffed. “If you believe size equates to power, then you will be gravely mistaken.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I know your powers precisely, Orion. While I could set War against you, full-force, she wouldn’t be able to kill you alone. Knock you out? Perhaps.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Already done </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Bossie,” War smirked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Accounting for your speed, resilience, and healing factor, let’s see how many of my girls you can stand up to at once. Let’s begin with Pain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she sighed, like a teenager being told by their mom to clean their room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stepped forward, not a weapon in hand. Only a few steps in, she was shot with an arrow quicker than the eye could see. Pain had been hit in the stomach, definitely piercing her major blood vessels had she been a normal person. She doubled over in surprise, but she barely made a sound of disturbance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooo, I’ve never seen arrows like </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> before,” she admitted. “Let’s see how effective they are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The arrow in her body shattered like glass and disappeared. Then, the arrow pierced through Orion in the same place it had torn through her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not very effective, I suppose. Healing factor can make up for the arrow’s properties and the arrow is made of magic, so it simply explodes the target with energy and then dissipates.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held up a finger towards Orion as though she were flicking him. Orion was hit with invisible blows, striking his arms, legs, his chest, and head. He shed more ichor from Pain’s attacks than he had when even War was beating him up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Resilient,” Pain noted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion braced himself from the hits and then sent more arrows towards Pain. She was pierced through the eye, the heart, her shoulder, and her knees. Pain staggered for only a moment before the arrows disappeared without leaving a mark on her and the attacks exploded upon Orion. He staggered just about as much as Pain had before charging in to bash her physically with his bow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain was not as fast as Orion, but she never needed to be. She allowed him to swing his bow like a baseball bat across her head with enough force to have probably ripped Pain’s entire head off. But Pain only felt the hit for a split second before it rebounded to Orion, sending him reeling from an invisible force striking his head. Pain’s body was thrown slightly to the side, but she merely had to reposition her feet to stay upright, while Orion was nearly entirely knocked off his feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Damage proportional to the target,” Pain reported. “Physical hits are much more debilitating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She waved her hand and a dagger slipped through her sleeve. Instead of striking Orion, she slit her own throat and the giant began choking on ichor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pestilence,” Boss ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right! My turn!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She ran past Pain, who fiddled with her blade as she turned and retreated, as if she was trying to sharpen the blade with her very fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pestilence grabbed a recovering Orion, his wounds closing at an accelerated rate. “Let’s see how many diseases you can stand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Orion was wracked with a variety of painful plagues all at once. For the giant who looked so much like a man, his beauty was ripped away by countless disgusting illnesses. Orion’s healing factor was fighting Pestilence’s power, but Orion was rendered nearly unable to move.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, look at my girl go,” Hatter crooned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> your girl!” Pestilence snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had to jump back as Orion made a swipe for her, but her diseases slowed him down enough that even Pestilence - who didn’t have any special speed - was able to dodge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Healing factor is moderate but tolerant,” Pestilence sighed. “Can be stunted, but not eliminated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lust,” Boss announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wooo! Time to paaaaar-taaaaay!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, look at my girl go,” Mirage crooned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The others had to take a larger radius as Lust began to wreck not only the giant but the surrounding area. Lust wasn’t fast, and she wasn’t allowed to use Mirage’s help, meaning that she needed to keep Orion distracted, blinded by flashing strobe lights and deafened by loud party music. She shot fireworks at the giant that were as strong as Greek fire, but like Greek fire, they weren’t able to do any permanent damage. But Lust’s disorientation and emotional control of both Orion’s positive emotions and negative emotions had him screaming and laughing and wailing and cackling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine sucked in a breath through her nose as Lust’s emotional powers resonated with the stones in Famine’s hand - and in Famine herself. She couldn’t help but think about Emily, who thought she might be a hero, who empathized even beyond the bars of a cage that should disable her powers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emily who could heal the void that Famine had been trapped in for so long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine was trapped in a medium, a place between embracing her emotions and being so devoid of them that it hurt to remember.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Iota!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, okay.” Lightning boomed across the area, striking Orion with over a billion volts of electricity. “I did it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine twirled the Animi Motus stone between her fingers in consideration.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Seven!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seven let Orion tried to hit her a couple times with arrows, but he continued to miss. Seven punched Orion - a feat that was both unlikely to hit him and unlikely to do any damage even if she did. But this was Seven, and so infinitesimally low odds were a guarantee for her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kill order?” she asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your choice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine couldn’t help but raise her eyes to Boss’s. What was she getting at?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“War inflicted him with her Berserker ability,” Boss informed her. “He will fight at his strongest and smartest, but he will not stop until he is stopped.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So why give me the choice? You’re the one who knows, Boss, what I should do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wish to see you make your choice. Either path is fine, so I will use this as a test of your character.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine raised an eyebrow. She was not a fan of being subservient to anyone, but she hadn’t minded Boss as she hadn’t minded anything else. Now was the first time she’d felt true confliction and animosity towards Boss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To kill Orion or not to kill him? Obviously not killing him felt like it would be appropriate - he was a giant hunting down the Athena Parthenos and its escorts and would determine whether or not they were successful. That was what logic told her. Another part of her thought about the rage of Hylla - the rage and loss of all of her people and her allies in the Hunters. The rage of a leader who had led her people to a massacre.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She could almost see the Hunters who looked so ageless, some of whom had lived for thousands of years, having their lives abruptly ended by Orion’s ambush. Within moments, they had gone from smiling and confidently planning a battle strategy to charging to their deaths, corpses piled in Orion’s wake. Amazons charging forward knowing that the best they could do was buy time under their queen’s orders, running forth knowing that they were only meant to add to the pile of bodies to hopefully stall Orion for just a few more seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And those thoughts filled Famine with rage through her newfound emotions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine launched herself forward, summoning a tidal wave of plants born of the blood of the dead and the anger of the living.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You are a giant who has roamed this earth nearly as long as I have, who did not need to be revived as your brethren in Athens. Once, your death after being struck with madness was a mercy. I assure you, this time you will not be so grateful.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. The Forgotten Storm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ya know, the hardest part about updating isn't writing the chapters themselves - it's having written like another five chapters ahead and having to go back to read my old work and do a last sweeping edit before I post the chapter. And also chapter names. Those are difficult too. Not only to I disorient myself with where we are in the story, but I've just lost interest in being all the way back here. Like in my head this is all old news. But if I posted everything the moment I finished, it'd be basically unedited and it'd be like five chapters in a day ad then weeks' worth of nothing then another like ten chapters then nothing for a few months. I backlog a couple of these chapters just to have something of an update schedule - and even that fails often.</p><p>Anyway, I'll probably be posting the next chapter or two since they go together while I work on the arc that comes after this one.</p><p>For you guys here in the past, enjoy!<br/>:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Kaze</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone on the ship seemed unhappy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That goddess is giving me a headache,” Hazel sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ditto,” Frank agreed. “I’d take Hedge over her any day.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, how about some more water?” Piper offered Jason.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He accepted her fussing, especially since Emily was no longer able to numb the pain for him and he was having a harder time coping with his wound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Annabeth was laboring over half a dozen books, writing down notes and researching something while Percy tried to get her to lighten up by eating his pancakes into the shapes of animals and then naming them. He had a fish named Dory and a clownfish that he put stripes on with syrup named Marlon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael was just meditating in the Veil. I brought him a sandwich and he came out a few minutes later to thank me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo had asked me to do some repairs on the ship, and I ended up finding out about his little project (from one inventor to another, it wasn’t hard to have put together what he was doing). Without Emily to help him, he accepted the speedy help from me since I at least had an inventor’s mind even if I couldn’t completely synchronize with his thought process. I didn’t have his passion for his project, nor his motivations. But I had the speed and at least won’t screw anything I was told to do up, so there was that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone felt uneasy with Emily gone, as though the entire dynamic that had been keeping us together had been knocked off kilter. You didn’t realize what a calming presence she was until she was gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That storm is giving me anxiety,” Audrey said, staring off into the distance where a torrential storm was up ahead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should all just give up and accept our fates, go home, and die,” Veon sighed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now, now, we should at least wait until this war’s over before we start making new plans,” Rei said, patting him on the arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Veon had been the most upset at hearing that Emily was gone, pacing back and forth across the deck, occasionally shadow-stepping without realizing it. Sometimes he disappeared for a moment, something exploded on the mainland, and then he returned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei had been mildly concerned, but she hadn’t reacted nearly as badly. One might even believe she didn’t care about Emily, or perhaps she knew where Emily was and that she’d be fine. You never knew when it came to partial omnipotence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Another reason I hated the gods who possessed my sister - I could never be sure of who she was, what she knew. I still wanted my sister back, the sister who was just </span>
  <em>
    <span>human</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Maybe she was a demigod, but she wasn’t above the rest of the world, she wasn’t unstable in terms of her personality and so unpredictable. Humans were unpredictable, of course, but what she was resembled the anxiety of disarming a bomb.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael and I stayed in my room (Rei’s room, really) while I continued to work on my projects and Azrael just watched, slipping into the Veil to let time pass. I was happy that at least he didn’t have to be subjected to the long hours of work and inventing - even when I was using my speed. I didn’t use my speed now because I wanted time to pass normally while I still got work done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But eventually, I sighed and set down my tools. Creativity and incentive could only sustain you for so long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tired?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael had come out of the Veil almost instantly. He was getting better at returning to normal speed when he sensed that something was happening and he needed to be aware of the rest of the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t get tired,” I told him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Speaking using the Veil was very odd, but also…nice. I could hear Azrael’s German, and though I didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> know German, I still knew what he was saying. He wasn’t speaking Japanese with a German accent, he was speaking </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual</span>
  </em>
  <span> German and I could just…</span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> what he was saying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And I could speak in my own tongue that he could understand, which required so much less thought than English (which I was learning manually) did. Everything in Japanese was straightforward. English was backwards and forwards and required so much context and then there were new words that meant the same thing as other words that just came out of nowhere and what even is life?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael’s German had such weird vowels at times, but it was sort of soothing to hear his voice speaking the odd tongue and still understand it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Break?” he suggested. “Food? Food makes me feel better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed and smiled. “I don’t need food either. But sure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We headed to the dining hall and Azrael got blueberry muffins for us. He said they were good. Normally, my sense of taste was disabled because of my artificial body, but Azrael somehow managed to give me a sense of taste again. I don’t know the full extent of how his ability to control my soul worked, but his ability to give me taste when technically I didn’t even have taste buds or a brain to manipulate amazed me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, eating did very little for me, adding just a small bit of energy to the spell that reanimated my body. But it was always gratifying to watch Azrael eat happily while we spoke about little topics. I had a feeling that he was transmitting his sense of taste to me, which is why I liked the blueberry muffins as much as I did. Azrael didn’t have the luxury of choosing his food back in the Wards, I knew, and so I often asked the others of the crew for new foods that Azrael could try so that he could know what he liked and didn’t like. The others seemed to find it amusing and agreed to make recommendations whenever they remembered something new they liked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two of us retreated back to our room where we simply waited out the days of travel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Annabeth and Piper had returned without Emily, the crew had been swarming with worry about why they had decided to capture her. They’d gone around and around about whether those demigods were to be trusted, whether they were helping and why, but then Jason had unexpectedly collapsed and the ship had gone quiet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The days had felt like everyone was holding their breath. The deadline of August first grew closer, and all the crew could do was go forward to the best of their ability, keeping their spirits and hopes up despite the challenges.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael laid opposite of me on the bed, wiggling his toes as he stared up at the ceiling. Just silence between us was very common since the two of us easily ran out of topics to speak about.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you write?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Write? I write down notes for inventions. Ideas. Progress reports.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean for entertainment. Poetry? Fantasy. That which you do not or cannot have.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I used to write for fun with Onesan. I did enjoy stories, yes. Onesan has so many stories from her time of freedom. Games, books, even just short ideas. Audrey has stories too. Myths that are important, and those that are merely made up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you remember any stories?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “My memory is better as I am now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me a story. Please.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was maybe surprised that Azrael asked, but it made sense. He was beginning to expand his horizons, and stories of fantasies that we didn’t have…well it was one of the only ways that we coped with the Wards, dreaming of the world that they promised and/or the worlds that we actually wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I began to tell a simplified version of one of the stories Onesan had written when we were younger together. She had dreamed up a world where everyone had powers and everyone lived in a utopia. There were kingdoms and cities, places both rural and urban, communities in forests and underwater and in the skies. And yes, people did struggle and there were conflicts, but things always worked out to a happy ending.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei had used their experiences in the Wards to create a military-like situation, but one where they were sent out on missions on their own, they always beat the bad guys. But then, their parents died and they were forced to go on the run - a brother and a sister. They ran away to new worlds, meeting new cultures and civilizations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then their home was in danger, and so they came back home many years later. There were bad people doing experiments to create super strong warriors even in a world where everyone was born with superpowers. But the siblings were smart; they not only used their power, but they learned to use them a smart way, and eventually they won their place back in their home once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sister married a prince, the brother married the leader of a band of misfits, and then they lived happily with the experiments who they saved from their oppressors. They had parties, went out on missions to help people, and continued to keep their world happy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is simple,” I admitted. “Too perfect, perhaps. But that is what we wanted. It is childish, but we were perhaps children at the time who never knew what could be better.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael didn’t respond. I realized that he had fallen asleep. Since he’d fallen asleep on top of the covers, I didn’t want to move him and risk waking him up. But then he might wake up cold, and that wasn’t nice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I reached over and grabbed my trench coat - the white one that shimmered lightly with pale blue accents as if to mimic the sky. It was the coat that I’d been given once I transformed into a Reanimation, one that could transform into a more regular-looking red hoodie-like jacket and that possessed my pockets that had infinite storage space. While Leo had a tool belt that could summon tools that he needed that were small enough to fit within his pockets, mine simply held what I put into it, but it still meant I usually had picked up something useful at any given time simply because I liked collecting anything and everything I thought would be useful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wasn’t sure how warm it would be, since it was designed for me as a Reanimation who barely knew what cold and heat were anymore. I had a uniform that had come with my new state along with the trench coat, but for now I was dressed simple in pajamas that Onesan had insisted we buy during one of our stops.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I draped the coat over Azrael, who was almost consumed by the large fabric. I wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> big. Azrael was just small. Or maybe my Reanimation body was much more different than my internal idea of what I looked like.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I so rarely looked in the mirror anymore. Maybe because there was no point. Maybe because I was afraid of what I’d see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael grabbed the coat in his sleep and readjusted himself, pulling his legs and arms in so that he could be completely hidden beyond his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael was probably used to sleeping without a blanket. In the Ward system, you were given a single bunk, just one set of sheets on your mattress, and that was considered a luxury. Any blanket-type object tended to have the psychological effect of a hug, something comforting and warm and a shield from the world. I’m not even sure the best of the best in the Ward program even got blankets. They were kept warm enough to not instantly die, and that was the limit of their kindness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I watched Azrael’s steady breathing as the sun descended through the window and the room was consumed by the darkness. I could still see pretty well in the dark relative to normal eyes, but it still felt like I was being blanketed by the night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt like only a second had passed before the ship lurched violently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael was tossed across the bed and nearly into the wall. I grabbed his arm with my fast reflexes, but quickly reconsidered and grabbed his waist so that I didn’t rip his arm off or at least dislocate something from the force of the sudden stop. I prevented him from crashing into the cabin wall by pressing him into the mattress to bring him to a stop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Was? Was ist los?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I have a feeling I should’ve said something, but for a moment, I forgot what speaking was. We were <em>very</em> close together. He was warm where I was not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship rocked again, shifting hard to port.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We were thrown in the opposite direction and flung off the bed. I kept my grip on Azrael’s shirt so that he landed on me instead of the floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Storm?” he realized.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He climbed off of me, shrugging my coat off his shoulders. I snatched up the coat and threw it on, feeling his lingering warmth on my artificial skin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship rocked violently back and forth as we made it to the window to see that it was indeed a storm - probably the one that Audrey had mentioned before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How? There was no beginning!” I exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Time flux,” Azrael said simply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you were asleep!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship tilted to starboard. Azrael grabbed the windowsill and gripped it to keep himself from falling. Some equipment that I’d left on the desk, open notebooks and textbooks (that I’d bookmarked with tabs already, luckily) were swept across the room. I quickly dashed around and caught the loose object, throwing them into the bookshelves, storage chests, and the armory room that were all properly bolted down and equipped to handle rough storms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose it happens in my sleep!” Azrael exclaimed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Storm can be diminished by calming the winds as well as the seas. I will help! Stay here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael snatched my hand before I could zoom away. “Safe. Be careful.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “Yes.” I hurried out the door. Azrael’s hand fell away and let me go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship was tilting so violently that I had to climb the floor. As a Reanimation, it wasn’t difficult, but for the rest of the crew, I could only hope they were okay. Anyone on deck might be thrown overboard if they didn’t have fast enough reflexes or just terrible luck, but we had two water benders on board, so I had to assume they were okay. The hull creaked, the engine groaned like a dying water buffalo, and cutting through the roar of the wind, the goddess Nike screamed from the stables: “YOU CAN DO BETTER, STORM! GIVE ME A HUNDRED AND TEN PERCENT!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I caught, to my surprise, Jason, who had risen from his deathbed so he could drown with the rest of the crew. He’d climbed the floor out of the sickbay and to the stairs to the middle deck, his head spinning already without the ship’s violent rocking making it worse.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship pitched to port, knocking him against the opposite wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I rushed over and grabbed Jason’s arm. “You should not be up now!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel stumbled out of her cabin, hugging her stomach. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span> the ocean!” When she noticed Jason, her eyes widened. “What are you doing out of bed?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason shook off my hand. “I’m going up there!” he insisted. “I can help!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hazel looked like she wanted to argue. Then the ship tilted to starboard and she staggered towards the bathroom, her hand over her mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can handle this!” I told Jason. “You need to rest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I’m tired of people taking care of me, whispering how worried they are. I’m tired of dreaming about being a shish kabob. I’ve spent enough time nursing the wound in my gut. It's either gonna kill me or it’s not. I’m not gonna wait around for the wound to decide! Now either let me help my friends or I’ll keep fighting my way out of the sickbay until I do some </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual</span>
  </em>
  <span> damage!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that, Jason began fighting his way to the stairs. He hadn’t been out of bed in a day and a half, ever since the girls got Sparta and he’d suddenly collapsed. His muscles rebelled at the effort. His gut felt like Michael Varus was standing behind him, repeatedly stabbing him and yelling ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Die like a Roman! Die like a Roman!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Bust Jason forced down the pain and forged onwards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed and moved to assist him to make it above deck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The scene up there made him almost as nauseous as Hazel. A wave the size of a skyscraper crashed over the forward deck, washing the front crossbows and half the port railing out to sea. The sails were ripped to shreds. Lightning flashed all around, hitting the sea like spotlights. Horizontal rain blasted our faces. The clouds were so dark I honestly couldn’t tell if it was day or night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The crew was doing what they could, which wasn’t much considering the severity of the storm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Onesan was standing on the deck, arms pointed up and outwards at an obtuse angle. Lightning sometimes struck her from all different angles, hitting one of her hands with index and middle fingers extended, traveling through her body, and then shooting out the direction of her other arm. I realized she was drawing the Lightning strikes that were threatening the rest of the ship to her and then redirecting them, keeping the harmful electric pressure away. Without her, we might’ve been feeling the air pressure ionizing into plasma each time the lightning came too close.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo had lashed himself to the console with a bungee cord harness. That might have seemed like a good idea when he rigged it up, but every time a wave hit he was washed away, then smacked back into his control board like a human paddleball.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Piper and Annabeth were trying to save the rigging. Since Sparta they’d become quite a team - able to work together without even talking, which was just as well, since they couldn’t have heard each other over the storm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank - at least I </span>
  <em>
    <span>assumed</span>
  </em>
  <span> it was Frank - had turned into a gorilla. He was swinging upside down off the starboard rail, using his massive strength and his flexible feet to hang on while he untangled some broken oars. Apparently the crew was trying to get the ship airborne, but even if we managed to take off, I wasn’t sure the sky would be any safer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even Festus the figurehead was trying to help. He spewed fire at the rain, though that didn’t seem to discourage the storm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Veon was shadow-stepping all around the ship, running interference. He summoned Kako in order to hold the ship together wherever he could - which was at least somewhat effective against the water, as tar was. It was probably the Kako he’d stationed within the borders of the ship’s hull that was even keeping the ship as intact as it was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ones having the most luck were Percy and Audrey. They stood back to back at the center mast, hands extended outwards. Every time the ship tilted, they leaned together in the opposite direction - sometimes one of them forward the other backwards, sometimes both in the same direction side to side - and the hull stabilized. Percy was summoning giant fists of water from the ocean to slam into the larger waves on his side before they could reach the deck, so it looked like the ocean was hitting itself repeatedly in the face. On Audrey’s side, she was freezing the giant waves - an effect that didn’t last long as her iced sections shattered within a few seconds at most, but it certainly broke the waves’ momentum and sent the ice shards sprawling into the sea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With the storm as bad as it was, I realized the ship would’ve already capsized or been smashed to bits if the children of the sea god weren’t on the job.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason staggered towards the mast. Leo yelled something - probably ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Go downstairs!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ - but Jason only waved back. He made it to Percy’s side and grabbed his shoulder. Percy nodded like ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>sup</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ He didn’t look shocked, or demand that Jason go back to sickbay, which Jason appreciated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey grabbed Percy and wrenched him around, switching their positions as she held her hands up and threw back a massive wave that Percy had let get too close in his moment of distraction. She clearly strained from the effort, and Percy turned to summon another giant fist to crash into the wave and dissipate it. The two of them stabilized the ship again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally, the pair could stay dry if they concentrated, but obviously they had bigger things to worry about right now. Their hair was plastered to their face, clothes soaked and ripped. Audrey’s long hair had been pulled into a hasty ponytail, but the loose strands still clung to her skin and when she whipped her head around, she nearly or did strike Percy with her hair like slapping him with a soaked, wrapped towel. At least Audrey’s jacket seemed to be in good condition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held up my hands and shoved against the winds, creating an air bubble around myself that blocked out the storm around me. I expanded my wind bubble as wide as possible, shoving back the torrential storm temporarily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lightning still struck the boat, shooting through my wind bubble and popping it like a balloon. Onesan sucked up the lightning and prevented it from setting the deck ablaze while I tried to renew the air bubble to try and make it easier to hear the others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy shouted something in Jason’s ear, but Jason could only make out a few words: “THING…DOWN…STOP IT!” Percy pointed over the side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I made my way over to the center of the deck where Percy and Audrey were keeping the ship stabilized so that I could expand my air bubble in all directions from there as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“…CAUSING…STORM?” Jason was shouting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy grinned and tapped his ears. Clearly, he couldn’t hear a word. He made a gesture with his hand like diving overboard. Then he tapped Jason on the chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“YOU…ME…GO?!” Jason felt kind of honored. Everybody else had been treating him like a glass vase, but Percy…well, he seemed to figure that if Jason was on deck, he was ready for action.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HAPPY…!” Jason shouted. “BUT…BREATHE…!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy shrugged. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Sorry, can’t hear you</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy patted Audrey on the shoulder and she nodded. She held her fingers in her mouth and whistled with her sonic power to be heard even over the storm. Out of the sea burst her steed Ariel, who charged head-first into a wave and redirected it before coming down to the ship.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WE…!” I heard her scream before she mounted her steed and took off, summoning her trident and dashing around, swinging her weapon at the waves and warding them off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Percy ran to the starboard rail, pushed another massive wave away from the ship, and jumped overboard. Piper and Annabeth clung to the rigging, staring at him in shock. Piper’s expression said ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Are you out of your mind?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I tapped Jason on the shoulder and pointed up. The winds were raging and the clouds churned above - there was an entire army of venti swirling above us, too angry and agitated to take physical form, but hungry for destruction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gaea had trained me with venti, to learn to use them to my advantage, and I wasn’t sure if the former Praetor, the great son of Jupiter Jason knew, but venti could be harnessed for underwater breathing and combat. I didn’t need to breathe as a Reanimation, but I could use venti to give an air supply to any allies I took down into the water and I could use venti to give myself more mobility as well as wind blades even in the unfavorable environment. On top of my speed, underwater combat was no issue - especially if there were venti to use.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason gave Piper an ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>okay</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ sign, partly to assure her that he would be fine (which he wasn’t sure about), partly to agree that he was in fact crazy (which he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> sure about). He staggered to the railing and looked up at the storm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held out my hand and easily tugged one of the chaotic storm spirits, bending it to my will. I’d learned long ago that the best way to control a crowd of bullies was to pick the meanest, biggest kid and force them into submission. Then the others would fall in line. I searched for one of the stronger storm spirits, finally grabbing a big one and pulling it down to encase myself in the winds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason raised his arm and summoned a lasso of wind, lashing out with his wing rope and searching for the strongest, most ornery ventus in the storm. He lassoed a nasty patch of storm cloud and pulled it in. “You’re serving </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> today.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Howling in protest, the ventus encircled him. The storm above the ship seemed to lessen just a bit, as if the other venti were thinking ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh crud. These guys mean business.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We levitated off the deck, encased in our miniature tornados. Spinning like corkscrews, we plunged into the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Things were at least a little calmer the further we dipped underwater. Jason seemed to be struggling - it was likely his first time using a ventus as a mode of underwater travel. He dropped and swerved with no apparent logic, his ears popping, his stomach pressed against his ribs. Riding a cyclone to the bottom of the ocean definitely gave one turbulence on the first go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I guided Jason after me, torpedo-ing through the water. Poseidon children were certainly better at me than this, but air and wind could be manipulated to be razor-sharp to cut through the water if I formed the tornado around me into a sharp, flat shape similar to an airplane wing except even more streamlined since I didn’t have to worry about lift.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason started to get a handle on taming his storm spirit, but it was still a shaky trip.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, we drifted to a stop next to Percy, who stood on a ledge jutting over a deeper abyss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” Percy said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We could hear him perfectly even under the water, though it wasn’t clear how. Probably a Poseidon kid thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s going on?” Jason asked. In his ventus air cocoon, his own voice sounded like he was talking through a vacuum cleaner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy seemed to hear him well enough. He pointed into the void. “Wait for it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three seconds later, a shaft of green light swept through the darkness like a spotlight, then disappeared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Something’s down there,” Percy declared, “stirring up this storm.” He turned and sized up our tornados. Mine was a lot more concentrated than Jason’s, but Jason was still holding his together with minimal effort. “Nice outfit. Can you hold it together if we go deeper?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have no idea how I’m doing this,” Jason confessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay. Well, just don’t get knocked unconscious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up, Jackson.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy snorted. “Kaze? How you doing?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “I do not need to breathe. Venti can be used as weapons underwater. I am wind and speed and inventions. Not water.” I turned and shot out a blade of wind that sliced through the air a good ten meters before the water resistance brought the blade to a halt and reduced it to a bubble that shot towards the surface. “Venti are infinite air supplies. They heal their air like you would heal blood cells.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neat,” Percy commented. He eyed Jason. “Can </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> do that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe?” Jason shrugged. “If I…tried?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy shrugged. “Good enough for me.” He grinned. “Let’s see what’s down there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And hope it does not kill us,” I added cheerfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We sank so deep that it was difficult to see anything beyond Percy and Jason swimming beside me in the dim light of their gold and bronze blades. My vision was slightly enhanced as a Reanimation for darkened environments, but there wasn’t much to see beyond the rocks of the surrounding area.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every so often the green searchlight shot upwards. Percy swam straight towards it. Jason’s ventus crackled and roared, straining to escape. The smell of ozone made him light-headed, but he kept his skell of air intact. My ventus struggled in vain, as the ozone and the attempt to cut off oxygen didn’t work in the slightest on me, but I reached out and assisted Jason in whipping his ventus into shape. If there was underwater combat, Jason needed to learn to get a handle on his ventus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The venti needed to compensate for the water pressure, we were going so deep, but the venti managed it well enough. If a storm spirit could be drowned, that would just be irony. Percy had no trouble with the increased pressure, and in fact, it almost seemed to give him a foothold to swim faster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At last, the darkness lessened below us. Soft white luminous patches, like schools of jellyfish, floated before our eyes. As we approached the seafloor, I realized the patches were glowing fields of algae surrounding the ruins of a palace. Silt swirled through empty courtyards with abalone floors. Barnacle-covered Greek columns marched into the gloom. In the center of the complex rose a citadel larger than Grand Central Station, its walls encrusted with pearls, its domed golden roof cracked open like an egg.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Atlantis?” Jason asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a myth,” Percy said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…don’t we deal in myths?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I mean it’s a </span>
  <em>
    <span>made-up</span>
  </em>
  <span> myth. Not, like, an actual true myth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So this is why Annabeth is the brains of the operation, then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up, Grace.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is probably true somewhere,” I muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We floated through the broken dome and down into shadows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This place seems familiar.” Percy’s voice became edgy. “Almost like I’ve been here-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The green spotlight flashed directly below us, encasing us in its light. We dropped quickly like stones, touching down on the smooth marble floor. When the light faded, we realized we weren’t alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Standing before us was a twenty-foot-tall woman in a flowing green dress, cinched at the waist with a belt of abalone shells. Her skin was as luminous white as the fields of algae; her hair swayed and glowed like jellyfish tendrils. Her face was beautiful but unearthly - her eyes too bright, her features too delicate, her smile too cold, as if she’d been studying human smiles and hadn’t quite mastered the art.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hands rested on a disk of polished green metal about six feet in diameter, sitting on a bronze tripod. It reminded me of a steel drum I’d once seen a street performer play. The woman turned the metal disk like a steering wheel. A shaft of green light shot upwards, churning the water, shaking the walls of the old palace. Shards from the domed ceiling brake and tumbled down in slow motion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re making the storm,” Jason realized.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed I am.” The woman’s voice was melodic - yet it had a strange resonance, as if it extended past the human range of hearing. Pressure built between Jason’s eyes; his sinuses felt like they might explode. My body felt the resonance and hum, but it didn’t have any effect on me mentally, just a tingle on my form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, I’ll bite,” Percy said. “Who are you, and what do you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The woman turned towards him. “Why, I am your sister, Perseus Jackson. And I wanted to meet you before you die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were two options: fight or talk. Usually, when faced with a creepy twenty-foot-tall lady with jellyfish hair, Jason would’ve gone with ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>fight</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ But since she called Percy ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>brother</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ - that made him hesitate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy, do you know this…individual?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy shook his head. “Doesn’t look like my mom, so I’m gonna guess we’re related on the godly side. You a daughter of Poseidon, Miss…uh…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pale lady raked her fingernails against the metal disk, making a screeching sound like a tortured whale. “No one knows me,” she sighed. “Why would I assume my </span>
  <em>
    <span>own brother</span>
  </em>
  <span> would recognize me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Dad’s got a lotta kids, all right?” Percy protested. “I’ve only got a human amount of storage space in here. And </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> am not the brains of the operation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She scoffed. “No. Would that be your sister then? Would </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> know my name?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Audrey? Uh…I mean she </span>
  <em>
    <span>has</span>
  </em>
  <span> been researching a lot of gods…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Audrey Mavepo. She and her little gift from Father are currently trying to push back my storm. I wonder if </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> would know my name. Perhaps I will bring her down here and see…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She twisted her metal drum and another shaft of green light shot away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait!” Jason shouted, but it was too late. If Audrey wasn’t there to defend the ship, the others would be utterly helpless to fight against the storm’s effects.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We would just have to hope that Onesan and Veon-san would be enough to use their special powers to hold on. I knew that when they tapped into their Primordials’ powers, they often lost control of their actions - meaning that it was a gamble as to whether the Primordials would help or just watch in amusement. Ironically, since Veon only had one Primordial who had been tamed and trained to work at Veon’s behest, he had more control over his Primordial’s power than Onesan did over her two-in-one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A small green orb shot back into the ruins, tossing a wave of water that was filtered from the rest like oil, and a moment later, Audrey’s body reformed from her liquid state, looking like she’d just been punched hard in the gut and had the wind knocked out of her. Her trident was still in her grip, and she reached out to hold it with both hands and turn around quickly, searching for the threat despite her dazed state.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Audrey Mavepo!” the giant lady announced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey quickly took stock of the woman, her eyes running up the length of her person and then to the drum at her fingertips. “You…you brought me here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, dear sister. Our brother doesn’t recall my name. Do tell me you are wiser than he.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey took a few gasping breaths (of water) and tried to concentrate. “You…you’re…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” the woman urged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rhode or…wait, no, no, no.” She held her hand out and shook it as though to erase what she’d just said. The pale giant woman’s eyebrow twitched in irritation. “Kym…you’re Kympoleia - er, Kymopoleia. I always forget the extra syllables in Greek names…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes!” The lady - Kymopoleia - looked elated to have someone finally recognize her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The waters shoved as though her very voice was shooting a bubble out in all directions to announce her pleasure. Audrey winced and gripped her trident tightly while Percy and Jason threw their arms up to brace themselves and I used my ventus to push against the force to stay in place where I was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, brother, do you recognize me now?” Kymopoleia announced proudly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy and Jason exchanged looks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…” Percy began. “So we’re gonna call you Kym. And you’d be, a, hmm, Nereid, then? Minor goddess?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s elated demeanor instantly twisted into rage. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Minor?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“By which,” Jason added quickly, “he means under the drinking age! Because obviously you’re so young and beautiful.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy flashed him a look: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Nice save</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym rolled her eyes. “Men. I feel as if I am constantly surrounded by idiots.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The goddess’s attention latched onto Jason. She pointed her index finger and traced his outline in the water. Jason could feel his captured air spirit rippling around him, as if it were being tickled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jason Grace,” said the goddess, “son of Jupiter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I’m a friend of Percy and Audrey’s.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wanted to clear my throat to remind everyone of my presence, but Kym’s eyes moved to me next. “And Kaze Yamasatchi, the child of Tsuchi, blessed by the Earth Mother.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze </span>
  <em>
    <span>Grigora!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” I corrected, perhaps more violently than I intended.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s eyes narrowed. “So it’s true…these times make for strange friends and unexpected enemies. The Romans never worshiped me. To them, I was a nameless fear - a sign of Neptune’s greatest wrath. They never worshipped Kymopoleia, the goddess of violent sea storms!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She spun her disk. Another beam of green light flashed upwards, churning the water and making the ruins rumble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your sister knows. Audrey, enlighten the foolish Roman boy, the child of the earth, and your idiot brother who I am.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey flinched. She looked put on the spot, as if she was given the sudden announcement that she’d be giving a speech she had no time to prepare for. “Uh…well…Kym here is one of Poseidon’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>three legitimate children</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she said through grit teeth, her eyes darting to Percy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gave her a face like ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Well how was </span>
  </em>
  <span>I</span>
  <em>
    <span> supposed to know?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Along with Triton and Rhode, they’re the children of Amphitrite - Dad’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual wife</span>
  </em>
  <span>. But Triton is a jerk with a conch shell and Rhode is barely known compared to Kymopoleia - the goddess of violent storms and destructive waves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Triton…” Jason muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The two-tailed guy with a conch and an attitude,” Percy muttered. “And yeah, the Romans aren’t big on navies. They had, like, one rowboat. Which I sank. Speaking of violent storms, you’re doing a first-rate job upstairs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” said Kym.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is, our ship is caught in it, and it’s kind of being ripped apart. I’m sure you didn’t mean to-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yes, I did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did.” Percy grimaced. “Well…that sucks. I don’t suppose you’d cut it out, then, if we asked nicely?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” the goddess agreed. “Even now, the ship is close to sinking. I’m rather amazed it’s held together this long. Excellent workmanship. And the protections that are fighting to keep things in one piece are certainly annoying, but it is only a matter of time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sparks flew from Jason’s arms into the tornado. He thought about Piper and the rest of the crew frantically trying to keep the ship in one piece. By coming down here, we’d left the other defenseless. We had to act soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides, Jason’s air was getting stale. Though it was unlikely that he’d use up a ventus by inhaling it, he was turning the oxygen and breathable atmosphere into carbon dioxide. The ventus could rejuvenate oxygen the same way that humans could regenerate lost blood cells, but it was a slow process. If you were bleeding out from a wound, the blood wouldn’t recover fast enough to keep you alive. If we were going to have to fight, we’d have to take on Kym before Jason ran out of oxygen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thing was…fighting a goddess on her home court wouldn’t be easy. Even with Audrey and Percy together, even if we managed to take her down, there was no guarantee the storm would stop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…Kym,” Jason said, “what could we do to make you change your mind and let our ship go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym gave him that creepy alien smile. “Son of Jupiter, do you know where you are?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason was tempted to answer ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>underwater</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ “You mean these ruins? An ancient palace?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed. The original palace of my father, Poseidon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey glanced around the ruins in awe, temporarily distracted. “This is Poseidon’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>original</span>
  </em>
  <span> palace…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy snapped his fingers, which sounded like a muffled explosion. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> why I recognized it. Dad’s new crib in the Atlantic is kind of like this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t know,” Kym said. “I am never invited to see my parents. I can only wander the ruins of their </span>
  <em>
    <span>old</span>
  </em>
  <span> domain. They find my presence…disruptive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She spun her wheel again. The entire back wall of the building collapsed, sending a cloud of silt and algae through the chamber. Fortunately, the venti acted like fans, blowing the debris out of our faces while the Poseidon children easily swatted it away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Disruptive?” Jason repeated. “You?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My father does not welcome me in his court,” Kym said. “He restricts my powers. This storm above? I haven’t had this much fun in ages, yet it is only a small </span>
  <em>
    <span>taste</span>
  </em>
  <span> of what I can do!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You haven’t had a good storm like this in ages?” Audrey repeated. “Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> doesn’t sound right. There are </span>
  <em>
    <span>tons</span>
  </em>
  <span> of storms that should be happening in this world…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A little goes a long way,” Percy said. “Anyway, to Jason’s question about changing your mind-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My father even married me off,” Kym went on, “without my permission. He gave me away like a trophy to Briares, a Hundred-Handed One, as a reward for supporting the gods in the war with Kronos eons ago.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>But the glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Okeanos’ foundations, namely Kottos and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring Earth-Shaker made his son-in-law, giving him Kymopoleia - Wave-Roaming - his daughter to wed,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Audrey recited. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hesiod, Theogony 817 ff - Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>memorized</span>
  </em>
  <span> that?” I couldn’t help but ask. I’d tried to remain silent - not a water child for this little family matter nor a diplomat like Jason, but she just quoted Hesiod?!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey blinked. “I…I dunno. Just came to me. I suppose I read it </span>
  <em>
    <span>somewhere</span>
  </em>
  <span> before…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy’s face had brightened. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> Briares. He’s a friend of mine! I freed him from Alcatraz.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, I know.” Kym’s eyes glinted coldly. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>hate</span>
  </em>
  <span> my husband. I was not </span>
  <em>
    <span>at all</span>
  </em>
  <span> pleased to have him back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. So…is Briares around?” Percy asked hopefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s laugh sounded like dolphin chatter. “He’s off at Mount Olympus in New York, shoring up the gods’ defenses. Not that it will matter. His brothers will be here soon enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy paled. “What…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My point, dear siblings, is that Poseidon has never treated me fairly. I like to come here, to his old palace, because it pleases me to see his works in ruins. Someday soon, his </span>
  <em>
    <span>new</span>
  </em>
  <span> palace will look like this one, and the seas will rage unchecked.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey looked at Jason. “This is the part where she tells us she’s working for Gaea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Jason went on. “And the Earth Mother promised her a better deal once the gods are destroyed, blah, blah, blah.” He turned to Kym. “You understand that Gaea won’t keep her promises, right? She’s using you, just like she’s using the giants.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am touched by your concern,” said the goddess. “The Olympian gods, on the other hand, have </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> used me, eh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy spread his hands. “At least the Olympians are </span>
  <em>
    <span>trying</span>
  </em>
  <span>. After the last Titan war, they started paying more attention to other gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right,” Audrey agreed. “Believe me, we have our issues with the Olympians. It’s all </span>
  <em>
    <span>Zeus’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> fault that we’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> this mess, and then he’s blaming Hera for trying to stop the gods’ downfall, but then Hera went and messed up </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> lives in return,” she rambled. “And in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>last</span>
  </em>
  <span> war, everyone was just like ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>No, I dun wanna fight</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ or ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>We got this who needs cooperation and planning!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and </span>
  <em>
    <span>man</span>
  </em>
  <span> do you just wanna slap so many of them. But we’ve been trying to whip them into shape! If you know </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> about us mortals, we are </span>
  <em>
    <span>stubborn</span>
  </em>
  <span>, believe me, and we’ve been getting more kids claimed by their godly parents-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A lot of the gods have cabins now at Camp Half-Blood: Hecate, Hades, Hebe, Hypnos…uh, and probably some that </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> begin with ‘H’ too,” Percy went on. “We give them offerings at every mean, cool banners, special recognition in the end-of-summer program-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And have </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> gotten such offerings?” Kym asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…no. We didn’t know you existed-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We were </span>
  <em>
    <span>getting</span>
  </em>
  <span> to it!” Audrey jumped in. “But we were starting with the gods who had demigod children, and before we could get to you, another </span>
  <em>
    <span>war</span>
  </em>
  <span> started! Can you </span>
  <em>
    <span>believe</span>
  </em>
  <span> it?” Audrey was obviously talking out of her ass, having not actually been a part of the second Titan war. Even if she </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> been, I had a sneaking suspicion that the demigods weren’t planning on researching every goddess mentioned in history in order to give offerings every single day and such. “We had the gods with their children who’d left their active mark on the world-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I have not been allowed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>make</span>
  </em>
  <span> my mark!” Kym snapped. “Poseidon has hidden me away like a shameful secret, restricting my power and presence in this world. Now, I shall </span>
  <em>
    <span>make</span>
  </em>
  <span> my mark, and you shall never forget my name again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s jellyfish tentacle hair floated towards her siblings, as if anxious to paralyze new prey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have heard so much about this ‘chosen’ Audrey Mavepo - and </span>
  <em>
    <span>especially</span>
  </em>
  <span> the great Percy Jackson.” She eyed Percy up and down, like he was a statue of art on display that was praised in the media, but she wasn’t impressed. “The giants are quite obsessed with capturing you. I must say…I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, sis. But if you’re going to try to kill me, I gotta warn you it’s been tried before,” Percy shrugged. “I’ve faced a lot of goddesses recently - Nike, Akhlys, even Nyx herself. Compared to them, you’re not scaring me. Also, you laugh like a dolphin.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s nostrils flared. Jason got his sword ready. Audrey gripped her trident. I prepared my ventus for combat and flicked my wrists to release the hilts attached to my wrists under my trench-coat’s sleeves. The blade would pop out at the simple mental command. No shurikens underwater, but the ventus wind-blades would make up for that. Close-quarters striking would be swords. Maybe I had some poisons I could use…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I won’t kill you,” Kym said. “My part of the bargain was simply to get your attention. Someone else is here, though, who very much wants to kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Above us, at the edge of the broken rook, a dark shape appeared - a figure even taller than Kymopoleia.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The children of Neptune,” boomed a deep voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant floated down. Clouds of dark viscous fluid - poison - curled from his blue skin. His green breastplate was fashioned to resemble a cluster of open hungry mouths. In his hands were the weapons of a retiarius - trident and a weighted net.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason had never met this particular giant, but he’d heard the stories. “Polybotes. The anti-Poseidon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant shook his dreadlocks. A dozen serpents swam free - each one lime green with a frilled crown around its head. Basilisks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed, son of Rome,” the giant said. “But if you’ll excuse me, my immediate business is with Perseus Jackson. I tracked him all the way across Tartarus. Now, here in his father’s ruins, I mean to crush him once and for all.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Translations:</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Was? Was ist los?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ - What? What is happening?</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Battle at the Bottom of the Sea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We got a couple long ones here but there's just so much happening now. Woot. I'm trying to organize everything in this story as well as a couple side stories, beating a couple stories, existing in general, but I accidentally got sucked into the Persona series - specifically Persona 5 - and now so many hours have gone to waste trying to please a dozen of my virtual friends and increasing my star of personality traits!</p><p>Anyway, have a double update because these two chapters were initially one until it started getting looooong…</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Veon</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> is going well!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“WHAT?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I said </span>
  <em>
    <span>THIS IS GOING WELL!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“NO IT’S NOT!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I WAS BEING - ugh, you know what? - GET BELOW DECK! NOW!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank, Annabeth, and Piper had joined Hazel and Azrael below deck. Their efforts to get the ship in the air had proven futile, and they were safer inside the boat than outside on deck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’d practically spread the Kako into every conceivable nook and cranny of the ship, holding together the rigging by a thread. Leo’s engineering had already beefed up the defenses on the ship, making it sturdy, and his little project had helped as well, but the Kako were needed to keep all his hard work from going down in flames - or rather, in salt water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariel the water-steed was still frantically circling the ship, ramming into waves of water and then causing them to redirect their course before emerging again - </span>
  <em>
    <span>becoming</span>
  </em>
  <span> the waves and then changing their direction with her sentience. Audrey had been sucked into one of the waves, but I wasn’t too worried about her drowning or anything. Maybe she was fighting underwater monsters, but she was a Poseidon child - in her home court.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy, Jason, and Kaze had disappeared not long ago, and based on the fact that Azrael had come sprinting up the stairs before he was pulled back down by a frantic Annabeth, I guessed he wasn’t happy to hear about Kaze’s dive. I had a sense of intuition (maybe some deathly senses or something) that he was watching over Kaze through the Veil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei was still on deck fighting off lightning - an impressive feat for sure, but I had a hint she had probably died more than once considering how well she was holding up. I’d learned to see the subtle hints of her mother’s blessing coursing through her veins, and when it was just her or the energy was from her Primordials.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I moved towards her instinctively, keeping a bit of distance so that she could still pull lightning bolts from striking the large ship from any angle, but still enough to feel her presence. Even when Tartarus was having a calm period, I still felt better when by Rei’s side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shot away another bolt and then slumped slightly, breathing hard, but even I could see she was smiling through the heavy rain and winds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“HAVING FUN?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“THE TIME OF MY </span>
  <em>
    <span>LIFE!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” And she genuinely seemed to mean it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help but laugh along with her. Here we were, the only two beings keeping this ship from exploding into flaming chunks of wreckage and keeping half a dozen lives from drowning. We had the weight of Primordials who didn’t understand the true meaning of being human within us, slowly corroding at everything that made us who we were - Rei especially had it even worse. We were probably being used to set off the end of the world </span>
  <em>
    <span>somehow</span>
  </em>
  <span>, regardless of how long it took or what path we got there on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Our powers were borrowed, our lives just a means to an end, our fates doomed no matter which angle you looked at it from - and we could still laugh. We could still </span>
  <em>
    <span>enjoy</span>
  </em>
  <span> ourselves because we were facing hardship together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow, it warmed my skin, covered in freezing ocean water seeping through my clothes and being windblown by savage storm spirits. Warmth and security pooled in my stomach, as though this moment of turmoil and terror was actually a breath of fresh air - a moment to relax and feel like we were actually on top of the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei fell forward and grabbed my arm, laughing with the chaotic winds and crashing thunder above and roaring waves around us. She was laughing with me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Being one with an all-powerful being wasn’t as freeing as this moment of laughing with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her touch still made me feel right again. Even though nothing was wrong at that moment, even though Tartarus had been quieter than ever after his long rant and panic attack upon hearing Emily had been kidnapped. For some reason, her energy still made me feel better - only now, instead of calming the raging Primordial within me, she raised me up from just fine to absolutely amazing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship listed to port. We were nearly knocked off our feet, but I summoned a pool of tar beneath our feet to grab us as we knelt together on the deck.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ariel came swooping in to intercept the wave and push it back, restabilizing the ship again. The moment she emerged from the wave, she flew down and landed on the deck, hooves clopping against the wooden surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She whinnied and bobbed her head frantically, as though trying to convey a message.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t speak horse! I can’t tell what's wrong!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“VEON!” Rei shouted. “AUDREY!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s in trouble?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The horse bobbed its head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll take that as a yes. But what can </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> do?! You’d be able to help her better than me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Yes, that’s it…</em>
  </b>
  <span>” Tartarus’s rumbling voice was drawn to the forefront of my mind. He’d been quiet just a moment ago, but now his voice was ripped through my body and torn out of my mouth. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Let me through!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” he snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I tried to catch Rei’s expression from the corner of my eye, but she looked just as confused as I felt. And just as panicked. She wasn’t Khaos right now, she had no control over what Tartarus was doing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey and Ariel had a connection, and Audrey was in trouble. Was Ariel suggesting something or was Tartarus doing this or both? Did he think he could use Ariel to connect to Audrey and save her?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was risky. Using Tartarus’s power still strained me even now - and I was used to it, being trained to handle it. But if whoever was causing this storm was endangering a child of Poseidon…giving her a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> power for just a few moments could mean the difference between all of us surviving or all of us dying. Well, our friends at least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Do it!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Tartarus and I ordered. For once, we’d come to an agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before I could regret this choice and what I might be doing to Audrey, Ariel clopped forward and then transformed into a wave of water that consumed me. A few moments of feeling like I was inside one of those tanks from Final Fantasy 7, my vision went blurry and I felt the semi-familiar feeling of Tartarus’s power taking over my body and soul.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And somehow, it felt like he was getting farther and farther away, leaving me in the empty, all-consuming darkness…</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Kaze</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Basilisks sucked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The little scum-suckers loved to burrow into places to annoy demigods of all kinds. Jason hated them, since they enjoyed burrowing under the temples in New Rome, and when Jason had been a centurion, his cohort always got the unpopular chore of cleaning out their nests.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A basilisk didn’t look like much - just an arm-length serpent with yellow eyes and a white frill collar - but it moved fast and could kill anything it touched. Even Jason had never faced more than two at a time. Now a dozen were swimming around the giant’s legs. The only good thing: underwater, basilisks wouldn’t be able to breathe fire, but that didn’t make them any less deadly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Two of the serpents shot towards Percy and Audrey. Percy sliced his in half while Audrey speared hers with her trident and shook its corps off the weapon. The rest of the basilisks swirled around them, just out of their weapons’ reach. They writhed back and for in a hypnotic pattern, looking for an opening. One bite, one touch was all it would take.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey and Percy went back to back in the water, watching the basilisks as they slowly turned in the water, keeping an eye on the whole 360 degrees while working together.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I dashed towards the swirling basilisks and shot out a wave of wind blades through the water taking out at least half of them. Audrey and Percy each shot forward through the water and sliced their weapons at the disoriented serpents. Polybotes barely batted an eye as another dozen - even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> than before, actually; more like </span>
  <em>
    <span>two</span>
  </em>
  <span> dozen - basilisks fell from his hair. Their numbers were getting too thick for comfort. I shot out larger wind blades, but that meant that I had less range, and my ventus was running out of juice. I needed to give it some time to regenerate air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I flicked my blades free and shot forward to slice straight through the basilisk line. They scattered swiftly, but I managed to clip at least three of them, slicing them in half before they could get away. Using speed mode was harder underwater, but I could still easily keep up with the serpents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of the serpents shot towards Percy from behind, but Audrey shoved him out of the way and held up her arm in defense. Her jacket was bitten by the basilisk, but she stabbed the serpent straight through its head and threw it away. She shook off her arm, but the fabric of her jacket hadn’t been pierced by the serpents’ fangs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank Dad for the protection…” she muttered. Her jacket was zipped up the front, so at the very least her torso and arms were protected, but that still left her legs, hands, neck, and face exposed - even if she pulled up the hood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I swam forth and sliced my swords through more basilisks, using my body as a shield for the two of them. Unlike Audrey and Percy, my body was entirely made of enchanted clay and ceramic - nothing organic to poison.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Jason yelled. “How about some love over here?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The snakes completely ignored him. So did the giant, who stood back and watched with a smug smile, apparently happy for his pets to do the killing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three of us were dashing around in a frantic game of tag as the basilisks darted around and we moved to try and attack without Audrey or Percy taking a hit. It only took one touch for them to be debilitated, and debilitation might as well mean death. There were cures to basilisk poison, of course, but even for the Poseidon children when underwater, it would not be easy nor quick to cure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kymopoleia.” Jason tried his best to pronounce her name right. “You have to stop this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She regarded him with her glowing white eyes. “Why would I do that? The Earth Mother has promised me unrestricted power. Could you make me a better offer?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A better offer…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sensed the possibility of an opening - room to negotiate. But what did he have that a storm goddess would want?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The basilisks were getting unnervingly close. Audrey and Percy blasted them away with currents of water, but they just kept shooting forward and charging in again. I sliced at them with my speed, but chasing down one for even half a second too long let another dash in to try and strike out at their targets. I hated how slow being in water was, but feeding power into my ventus, I managed to help hold the line.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, basilisks!” Jason yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still no reaction. He could charge in and help, but the battle was already raging at a stalemate, and he couldn’t take on as many basilisks when he barely had control over his ventus yet. He needed a better solution.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He glanced up. A thunderstorm raged above, but we were hundreds of feet down. He couldn’t possibly summon lightning at the bottom of the sea, could he? Even if he could, water conducted electricity a little </span>
  <em>
    <span>too</span>
  </em>
  <span> well. Rei had been training him in electricity control to target it, but air was a serious insulator, and so it wouldn’t let lightning just shoot out like an uncontrollable beast trying to rip itself free. It would follow the path of least resistance, and it was a lightning wielder’s job to direct where that path was and not let it be dragged anywhere else. Underwater, the electricity might not be contained so easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he couldn’t think of a better option. He thrust up his sword. Immediately the blade glowed red-hot.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A diffuse cloud of yellow light billowed through the depths, like someone had poured liquid neon into the water. I shot forward and grabbed Audrey and Percy, slicing downwards through the water so that we were as far away from the basilisks as possible. The light hit Jason’s sword and sprayed outwards in over a dozen separate tendrils, zapping the basilisks and narrowly avoiding the three of us. I could feel the tingle of electricity in the water, but it wasn’t fatal from our position.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The basilisks’ eyes went dark. Their frills disintegrated. All of the serpents turned belly-up and floated dead in the water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Next time,” Jason said, “</span>
  <em>
    <span>look</span>
  </em>
  <span> at me when I’m talking to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes’s smile curdled. “Are you so anxious to die, Roman?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy gripped his sword and darted forward, pushing off the floor where I’d shoved him and hurling himself at the giant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Percy!” Audrey screamed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes swept his hand through the water, leaving an arc of black oily poison. Percy charged straight into it faster than anyone could yell, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Dude, what are you thinking?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy dropped Riptide. He gasped, clawing at his throat. The giant threw his weighted net and Percy collapsed to the floor, hopelessly entangled as the poison thickened around him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey shot forward with her trident before her, diving down towards Percy and pushing away the poison as she went, trying to clear the water. She shoved the prongs of her trident through the net, scooping up the weighted prison and swimming upwards with her torpedo-ing power to try and lift it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t get far with the heavy weight of the giant’s net before another basilisk shot from Polybotes’s hair. Audrey instinctively threw up her arms to block, but the heavy weight hanging from her trident wouldn’t allow her to lift it to protect her face, and so it slipped from her grasp. Luckily, her jacket blocked the basilisk’s poison, but as she turned to snatch back her trident - her fingers just barely brushing the metal - Polybotes flung a wave of poison into her face. Audrey screamed and clawed at her eyes and throat, kicking her foot out to blast herself away blindly through the water and kicking the poison aside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I dashed in and sliced at the basilisk, gritting my teeth as another swarm was released in our direction. With both Percy and Audrey incapacitated, I would be the only one defending them. I didn’t count on Jason being able to summon anymore lightning bolts - at least any time soon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey was actually managing to blow away the poison - maybe using her power to </span>
  <em>
    <span>control</span>
  </em>
  <span> the poison - but then something shot out from beside Polybotes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, I thought it was another basilisk, but upon slicing down a swarm of them in front of me and turning towards Audrey to intercept, I slashed my sword only to realize it was a bolas - a throwing weapon with a pair of weighted balls that could be thrown for capturing purposes. Even underwater, they nearly moved faster than I could keep track of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I recognized the craftsmanship.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The rope and the metal balls were weaved with celestial bronze. Inside were some circuits and devices that automatically wrapped the cord around the target and locked into place, the rope malleable until it caught something and then condensed to conform to the target. This design made them resilient and strong enough to capture even me when I was running at speed - my ankles, no less, the fastest moving part of me when I’m running. I’d been captured by them before. They were wired to give a shock to stun the target if they struggled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though the design had clearly been upgraded and modified for underwater usage, I knew exactly who had thrown them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I increased my speed mode as high as possible and then turned and swung my sword with the flat of the blade, blasting my ventus to shoot myself back and away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I struck a grenade that instantly exploded upon the hit from my sword, and I abandoned the weapon knowing that it wasn’t worth salvaging. A weighted net exploded from the grenade, and if it weren’t for my ventus and my speed mode, I would’ve gotten completely tangled in it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey had been caught by the bolas, which tangled around her wrists (despite her flailing her arms up above her as far apart as they could go) and pulled them together. The metal balls spun like they were being remotely controlled, tangling her wrists up and then coming together. The moment the metal balls touched with a sharp click, they instantly started humming and Audrey’s wrists were dragged downwards with an abrupt jolt - taking her body along with them, obviously - as if the bolas had suddenly become a million kilograms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ack!” The bolas hit the floor hard and Audrey struggled to pull her arms from above her head where they were bound and stuck to the marble floor of the palace. The rope holding her wrists fast didn’t even have any give. The metal balls might as well have been a part of the cavern floor. “What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell?!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes were still blinded by the poison, but she shoved her head forwards and backwards; she wasn’t just struggling, she was trying to use her head to bend the water and poison to help her regain her sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Polybotes didn’t let up. He casually dropped another cloud of poison on top of her, and though Audrey kicked her feet frantically, she was consumed by it, hacking as her scream was consumed by noxious wheezing and hacks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let them go!” Jason’s voice cracked with panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The giant chuckled. “Don’t worry, son of Jupiter. Your friends will take a </span>
  <em>
    <span>long</span>
  </em>
  <span> time to die. After all the trouble they’ve caused me, I wouldn’t dream of killing them quickly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Noxious clouds expanded around the giant, filling the ruins like thick cigar smoke. Jason and I scrambled backwards. Jason didn’t move fast enough, but his ventus proved a useful filter. As the poison engulfed him, the miniature tornado spun faster, repelling the clouds. Kymopoleia wrinkled her nose and waved away the darkness, but otherwise it didn’t seem to affect her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What I was concerned about was what was hiding behind Polybotes and his poison. I conserved my ventus and then dashed forward, swinging my sword and striking at Tsuchi Yamasatchi - or at least the Reanimation of her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Grass-green pupils surrounded by black sclera stared up at me. Her outfit hadn’t changed - jeans, camo shoes with a wedge, a black T-shirt, fingerless gloves, a bag at either hip hanging from her belt, and an olive green trench coat similar to my shimmering white and pale blue one. Her brown hair that was normally in a braid had been pulled up into a braided crown behind her head. We had identical pale, smooth skin, like porcelain, but hers was visibly cracking while mine I had hidden behind a light glamour thanks to Azrael’s Veil - also hiding my black sclera.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mother,” I greeted flatly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, </span>
  <em>
    <span>son</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Neither of us were used to referring to each other as mother and child. Tsuchi had raised me saying that I was her little brother because she was only a teen when she’d gotten pregnant. I’d only learned about our true relations recently, and it still felt odd to think of her as my mom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having retreated from the fight back at the House of Hades, she and Rei’s father Kandai - another Reanimation - hadn’t been seen since. They were being hunted by Azrael’s parents, Reapers who served Death (Thanatos) to collect rogue souls like ghosts who were trapped within the Veil between life and death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsuchi Yamasatchi had gone to Punishment before Gaea brought her back, Kandai had supposedly gone to Elysium, while I had gone to the Fields of Asphodel - granted my soul had been broken and killed by the Primordials to the point that it wasn’t possible to dip my soul in the Lethe. The three of us each </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> needed to be brought back to the Underworld, but Azrael had gotten me a temporary pardon so long as he was around to keep me in control rather than Gaea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsuchi…I wasn’t entirely sure about her. She was very good at pretending like she was aware of herself and in control, and for a while there, I had questioned whether she was actually planning a rebellion against Gaea, trying to wake Kandai up and make him aware of himself as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d been hiding, on the run, perhaps still working for Gaea. And I had been looking for my mother for a long time, so that I could return her to hell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With a cry of rage, I summoned my full power to fight Tsuchi.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Azrael</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took time for me to calm down enough to properly enter the Veil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Veil was cold, built for souls and the undead alone. My mother described feeling no heat nor cold nor pain as a real Reaper, but most of the ghosts she and my father collected felt the cold of death and often the fear and pain of their moments of death that got them trapped in the Veil in the first place. It was my parents’ job to retrieve ghosts who were so scared and traumatized or enraged and stubborn that they tried to stay in this world. The only ones they couldn’t retrieve were those who were tied to physical objects that needed to be broken or purified before they could properly steal away the ghost.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But for me, who was born dead and alive all at once, the Veil was cold and sometimes scary and also comforting. To enter, I needed to let my heartbeat slow, keep myself calm, let the rest of the world pass by.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But that wasn’t easy when I was panicking and trying to rush to get to Kaze. I sometimes wished we could trade powers, so that I could speed through the world and move so fast that no one else could possibly disturb me - that I never had to fear time passing before my eyes and missing out on things that now mattered to me. For so long, I’d only wanted time to pass and to let the painful world pass me by, but now I had things I cared about - things I wanted to pay attention to, things I didn’t want to miss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I finally stepped into the Veil, trying to keep myself focused enough to </span>
  <em>
    <span>stay</span>
  </em>
  <span> there, before floating through the world and pulling myself towards Kaze. Kaze’s soul was tethered to me, and so finding him was as easy as breathing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I exhaled and found myself standing before a portal to some underwater ruins. I couldn’t exit the Veil without drowning myself, but I could still peek out from the Veil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Around me, normally, was a white, empty void. But I just needed to concentrate and I could lower the opacity so that I could see a scene around me. Sometimes I just looked through a portal, like a looking glass to see what I needed, and other times I transformed the entire environment around me so that the world was a ghostly image being the Veil’s barrier. Now, I did the latter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While to me, the real world was like a hologram, partly transparent to the white void of the Veil, I was invisible to regular eyes and probably looked like a ghost to anyone with Underworld senses - like Veon or Nico.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze?” My tug on his soul suddenly began to weaken. It was like the air slowly being sucked out of my lungs, and soon, I wouldn’t be able to breathe. “Kaze!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I ran into the large, underwater palace ruins, only to find a nightmarish scene before me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy and Audrey were writhing under clouds of poison - Percy trapped under a net that was tangled with Audrey’s trident, while Audrey’s hands were pinned to the marble floor by ropes that were almost breaking through the tiles they were weighted down so heavily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze was clashing at high speeds with another blurry figure, and upon really looking, I realized it was another Reanimation that I’d met just vaguely before - his mother, Tsuchi Yamasatchie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But if </span>
  <em>
    <span>Tsuchi</span>
  </em>
  <span> was here, then that meant one or both of my parents had to be nearby as well in the Veil. I called out to them frantically, rushing over to the fight and trying to remember that I wasn’t really there; I was in the Veil, I could float up to where they were clashing in the poison-filled clouds of the ruins.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason charged to help Percy and Audrey, but the giant Polybotes blocked him with his huge trident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I can’t let you ruin my fun,” Polybotes chided. “The poison will kill them eventually, but first come the paralysis and hours of excruciating pain. I want them to have the full experience! They can watch as I destroy you, Jason Grace!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes advanced slowly, giving Jason plenty of time to contemplate the three-story-tall tower of armor and muscle bearing down on him. He dodged the trident and, using his ventus to shoot forward, jabbed his sword into the giant’s reptilian leg. Polybotes roared and stumbled, golden ichor pluming from the wound.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes turned. “You are a pest, son of Jupiter. You will be crushed!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason tried to summon more lightning. Nothing happened. If he ever met his dad, he’d have to petition for an increased daily allowance of bolts. Jason managed to avoid the prongs of the trident again, but the giant swung the other end around and smacked him in the chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason reeled back, stunned and in pain. Polybotes came in for the kill. Just before the trident would have perforated him, Jason’s ventus acted on its own. It spiraled sideways, whisking Jason thirty feet across the courtyard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Thanks, buddy,</em>
  </b>
  <span>’ Jason thought. ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>I owe you some air freshener.</em>
  </b>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If the ventus liked that idea, Jason couldn’t tell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Kaze was dodging and moving to strike at Tsuchi, both of them moving almost too fast for me to even see the blur that was their forms. Luckily their trench coats were contrasting light and dark colors, but I could barely grab one or the other to pull them into the Veil to slow them down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Preferably I’d like to grab Tsuchi, but I was more concerned about Kaze losing himself again. He was angry at his mother, more angry than he was about anything else. He hated her - he hated that he hated her, that she’d ruined his chances at loving his mother or even loving a sister. He was angry at Tsuchi for taking away the potential family they could’ve had together, and for the monster she’d allowed herself to become.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And hatred powered his Reanimation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t let him lose himself, even if it meant stopping her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I tried to snatch Tsuchi, but she was moving so fast that it looked like she passed straight </span>
  <em>
    <span>through</span>
  </em>
  <span> me. Yes, I was still a ghost in the Veil, but as a Reanimation and therefore a terrible creation of death within this form given to her by Gaea, I should’ve at least been able to grab her soul the same way I could touch Kaze’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I wasn’t strong enough, I guessed. Tsuchi had only been growing in power ever since she’d been revived, and my parents had been hunting her for a long time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Azrael!” I felt a shifting in the Veil and strong arms were embracing me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hannah Der Meister von Allem had been a young woman when she had died and was frozen in time as a Reaper. Her long, dirty-blonde hair was pulled up in a messy braid, she had an eternal mild tan and blue-green eyes that always felt wild, moving around constantly as though she was always thinking about things at light-speed. She reminded me of Kaze, in a way, as a daughter of Hephaestus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you all right? Are you hurt?” Her German was so soothing and familiar. Though I’d been using the Veil to translate things for so long into German, there was nothing like her real accent and voice as she formed the proper syllables that made up her mother tongue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Technically, Hannah had been raised in a traveling circus, so she knew many languages - including the Japanese of my father, Ithuriel, and their friend Kandai - who was Rei’s father. I was once again reminded of Kaze as my concern for him grew once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. None have touched me. But Kaze-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes hardened and she nodded, her jaw set. Hannah was beautiful in the sense that somehow her rugged look of both an inventor and a fighter looked natural on her. She wasn’t pretty, a supermodel of perfection like an American Caucasian with smooth skin and symmetrical features like a doll, but she was still very beautiful in her own way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right. Let’s get to work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is Ithuriel-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tracking Kandai at the moment, yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why do you not come together?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She ran her hand through my hair. Her skin was rough with callouses; she was big for a woman, and her hand nearly cupped my entire head like a basketball. “Because we can’t let them go unchecked. Besides, I can handle Kaze’s mom. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “And I must save Kaze.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We looked up to the clash as Tsuchi threw a variety of grenades towards Kaze who dodged by a narrow hair each time even as he was pushing his speed as high as possible to the point that I was beginning to lose their positions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Focus, Azrael. The Veil has no concept of time - we are never too slow if we don’t want to be. We are the guardians of this realm and so it will bend to our will. Use it to increase your awareness, to take in everything that you need.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded and sucked in a deep breath, letting the comforting power of the Veil wash through me. The Veil was home, the Veil was my friend and I was its protector.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My eyes darted to Kaze as he threw a sphere at Tsuchi that exploded into a mini-flash grenade, and I followed as Tsuchi dodged and then threw a bolas as Kaze - one that would likely hold him down the same as the one holding Audrey. Though since Kaze was technically stronger, it might not pin him, but being weighed down even just a little would slow his speed too much to keep up with Tsuchi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My stomach clenched as I saw Kaze’s black sclera and his emotionless face as he targeted Tsuchi with the same single-minded determination that came from a Reanimation given orders.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Grab Kaze’s soul and remind him who he is,” Hannah ordered. She knelt and placed her hands on my shoulders. I was getting more weight on me and growing more now that I was free of the Wards and Kaze was insisting I try to find new foods that I liked, but Hannah was still over three-quarters of my height even when on her knee. “You’re a strong Reaper, Azrael. I’ll have time to teach you properly one day, but for now, save the one you chose to bond yourself to - the one I know you can save. Kaze Grigora is not like his mother; he deserves to live, and you are the only one who can give him the second chance he truly deserves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then let’s go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She stood and moved swiftly through the Veil, flying towards the fight. I jumped towards Kaze, letting the bond I had to help keep his soul human guide me. I was the Veil, I could go anywhere I needed, I didn’t need to chase Kaze around and hope that I would catch him - I could just </span>
  <em>
    <span>be</span>
  </em>
  <span> with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I grabbed Kaze by his very soul, feeling the empty rage and hatred that was powering him and putting his soul into a comatose state. The Reanimation was in control.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze, please, I need you to come back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I vaguely saw Hannah wrestling Tsuchi. Both descendants of Hephaestus were stubborn, resilient, and smart, but I had to believe in Hannah and stay focused on Kaze’s soul.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A blinding aura of power exploded from below. It took me a moment to realize that it was coming from the poisonous cloud that was engulfing the Poseidon children. One of them had gone nuclear, and I nearly lost my grip on Kaze from the overwhelming deathly energies that were shooting through the underwater ruins. Hannah lost her grip on the struggling Tsuchi, but she was also looking down at the scene in surprise. Kaze grabbed me - actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>touched</span>
  </em>
  <span> me - and I realized that he could sense it too, and he was so disturbed that his less-than-human state was baffled as Tsuchi, Hannah, and I.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey Mavepo rose to her feet, her weighted bonds still pulling her wrists down, but she was powering past it. Her sclera were a bright blood red, pupils darkening to black - her eyes emanated a sickly dark glow like a black light with red along the edges. Her entire body was pulsating with a dark aura the same colors as her eyes. She stood straight and then easily ripped apart her bonds, turning the celestial bronze to ashes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held her hand out and her trident (tangled in Polybotes’s weighted net holding Percy down) came to life and was summoned back to her hand. The prong that was latched onto the net brought the net with it as it returned to Audrey’s hand. Percy was pulled free of his poison cloud, and Audrey easily swatted away the noxious substance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she made contact with her trident, it flashed like it had been set ablaze by lava. She easily sliced through the netting around Percy and reached in to extract him. His body was limp and yet seizing, as if his muscles couldn’t control themselves; it was hard to tell if he was conscious, but based on Polybotes’s boasting, it was likely he was still fully aware of his pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>How I might love to see you suffer, boy, but not today. Right now, I’m in a good mood.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
  <span>Audrey’s voice was laced with the deep male undertones of a god - the same thing that happened when Rei or Veon were possessed by their Primordials.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey’s eyes locked onto Polybotes, who had also paused in his pursuit of Jason to watch the scene unfold before us. Her face set into a scowl and her very aura darkened and pulsated with anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Return to the Pit from WHENCE YOU CAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her final word screeched with her sonic power towards the giant, both the sound and the physical pushing force causing him to stumble back. Audrey then blasted forward in the water swinging her glowing trident with the intent to kill. Porphyrion dodged, leaving Audrey swinging and slicing a large chunk of the old ruins away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She recovered quickly, pursuing Porphyrion with new speed - even for her torpedo-ing underwater in her domain. She dashed over towards where Percy was lying; she dug her trident onto the remains of the weighted net and then flung it forward, letting the weights swing around and smack the giant in the face, tangling him up in the netting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her trident easily slipped free and she raised it to strike. Polybotes blocked with his own trident, and despite the size difference, the pair were at a stalemate. He ripped the netting off of himself while the two held their weapons in a clash.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is this?” Polybotes demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey’s face twisted into a smirk. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>A game! An oh-so-amusing game!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Her face switched into a snarl. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>You’re going to PAY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two began striking and clashing, Polybotes didn’t seem to </span>
  <em>
    <span>mean</span>
  </em>
  <span> to, but more basilisks fell free of his hair and poison seeped from his body, but Audrey merely swept both aside, occasionally slicing a basilisk in passing. Any time a basilisk turned on Jason, she instantly snapped towards it and shot it with a red-hot laser blast from her trident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kym!” Jason yelled while he had a moment of peace from Polybotes. “Is this really what you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The storm goddess Kymopoleia looked rather bored, idly spinning her metal disk. “Unlimited power? Why not?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But is it any fun?” Jason asked. “So you destroy our ship. You destroy the entire coastline of the world. Once Gaea wipes out human civilization, who’s left to fear you? You’ll still be unknown.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason quickly dodged a basilisk and swung his sword to strike it down. His ventus moved him out of the way as Audrey and Polybotes began a serious fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tsuchi took the opportunity to punch Hannah in the jaw and then dashed towards Audrey. Kaze threw me away and then intercepted his mother just in time, blocking the knife she had drawn and wrestling her with their weapons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, Jason Grace,” Kym said, studying her fingernails, “now that you mention it, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> enjoy being feared by mortals. I am not feared enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can help with that!” Jason dodged a swipe of Polybotes’s trident as Audrey moved in to swing her weapon and chopped off a section of Polybotes’s hair as he quickly moved away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She surged forward and managed to shove the butt of her trident into the giant’s eye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“AUGH!” The giant staggered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy was writhing on the floor, his movements sluggish. Jason knew he needed to hurry. We needed to get Percy to the sickbay, but if the storm kept raging above us, there wouldn’t be any sickbay to get him to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason flew to Kym’s side. “You know gods depend on mortals. The more we honor you, the more powerful you get.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been honored!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She ignored Polybotes, who was stampeding around her, trying to swat Jason out of his whirlwind while Audrey played a game of striking and retreating to help keep the goddess between them. She laughed with her multi-tiered voice, muttering about the fun she was having.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can change that,” Jason promised. “I will </span>
  <em>
    <span>personally</span>
  </em>
  <span> arrange a shrine for you on Temple Hill in New Rome. Your first </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> Roman shrine! I’ll raise one at Camp Half-Blood as well, right on the shore of Long Island Sound. Imagine, being honored-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And feared.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-and feared by both Greeks and Romans. You’ll be famous!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“STOP TALKING!” Polybotes swung his trident like a baseball bat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason ducked. Kym did not. The giant slammed her in the rib cage so hard that strands of her jellyfish hair came loose and drifted through the poisoned water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey’s two voices laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, Kymopoleia. You shouldn’t have been in the way!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“IN THE WAY?” The goddess straightened. “I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>in the way?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You heard him,” Jason said. “You’re nothing but a tool for the giants. They’ll cast you aside as soon as they’re through destroying the mortals. Then no demigods, no shrines, no fear, no respect.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“LIES!” Polybotes tried to stab him, but Jason hid behind the goddess’s dress. </span>
  <span>“Kymopoleia, when Gaea rules, you will rage and storm without restraint!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will there be mortals to terrorize?” Kym asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…no.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ships to destroy? Demigods to cower in awe?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey held up her hand and blocked Tsuchi, who had charged past Kaze to get to her. Audrey easily grabbed Tsuchi by the neck and held her in place, eyes flashing. She studied Tsuchi for only a moment before opening her mouth and releasing a wave of what I initially thought was poison similar to Polybotes’, but my senses told me that it was more than that - it was terrible soul-energy, power from…from Tartarus?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The black smog Audrey released upon Tsuchi engulfed her, and as Audrey released her, the cloud of dark ink seeped through Tsuchi’s eyes and mouth even as she writhed and dashed away, hacking. I wasn’t aware it was even </span>
  <em>
    <span>possible</span>
  </em>
  <span> for a Reanimation to choke. Before any of us could stop her, she bashed her way out of the ruins in a desperate flight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced over at Hannah apologetically, but she merely shrugged. “The chase continues. Don’t worry, young one. I do not ever tire nor grow weary when it comes to my job. Until we meet again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She vanished deeper into the Veil, zipping after Tsuchi.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey suddenly wavered, her eyelids falling heavy as if she just realized how much energy she’d put into that attack. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>No…!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She fell unconscious, her aura fading and her trident slipping from her grip as she sank to the marble floor. Luckily, while she was underwater, her fall didn’t do that much damage, but Kaze still rushed to catch her. Luckily, Polybotes was more than distracted - too distracted to come after Audrey or even notice her falling helpless, her new power gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze looked after his mother with mixed emotions in his eyes. His sclera faded back to white, but the brown of his eyes always remained the same. I reached out and took his hand, feeling his soul still perfectly intact…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze probably hadn’t even realized he’d transformed to use his Reanimation’s full power. Kaze was completely in control of himself the entire time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed through my nose. ‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>You probably don’t even need me anymore…</em>
  </b>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And I faded back into the Veil with a twisted wave of sadness consuming me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I woke lying on the bed in Kaze’s sister’s room that we’d been sharing. For a long while, I hid within the passing time of the Veil, trying to forget the sorrow of realizing I was losing my reason to be with these people - with Kaze. And once my usefulness was over, I would be alone and adrift to be returned to the Wards once more.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Second part of another double update!</p><p>The only reason for these is because my chapters are getting too long. So much info to get through! (Also I have chapters that average 10-20 thousand words in another story and it's hard to shorten down). Oh how far we've come from the first story in this whole debacle with a measly 150,000 words, eh? We passed that milestone already in THIS story…</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Kaze</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I felt Azrael’s presence depart suddenly. He hadn’t even given a word or a tingle of emotion before he left.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Azrael had the ability to push feelings and emotions through me, and sometimes it was just the calming, forgetful aura that I liked. It was that feeling that he got when he let the world pass by, not worrying about what was happening or what events were passing. I had never experienced that before - I always needed to know everything that was happening at any given moment and feared when events passed by without my knowledge, but Azrael always managed to push that peacefulness through me as a comforting presence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He probably didn’t realize how much I valued even the unconscious feelings that he pushed through me, how he made my soul return and stabilize and remind me that I was still human somewhere within this artificial body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But before me, I had to stay focused. Jason was on the verge of getting Kym on our side - and with her help, we could deal with Polybotes. But we couldn’t let the giant get any final hits on us in retaliation while we sealed the deal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Help us,” Jason urged the sea goddess. “Together, a goddess and a demigod can kill a giant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Polybotes suddenly looked very nervous. “No, that’s a terrible idea. Gaea will be most displeased!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>If</span>
  </em>
  <span> Gaea wakes,” I pointed out. “The mighty Kymopoleia can help us make sure that never happens. Then all demigods will no doubt honor you </span>
  <em>
    <span>big</span>
  </em>
  <span>-time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will they cower?” Kym asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tons of cowering!” Jason promised. “Plus your name in the summer program. A custom-designed banner. A cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Two shrines. I’ll even throw in a Kymopoleia action figure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Polybotes wailed. “Not merchandising rights!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kymopoleia turned on the giant. “I’m afraid that deal beats what Gaea offered.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unacceptable!” the giant bellowed. “You cannot trust this vile Roman!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If I don’t honor the bargain,” Jason pointed out, “Kym can always kill me. With Gaea, she has no guarantee at all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That,” Kym said, “is difficult to argue with.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Polybotes struggled to answer, Jason charged forward and stabbed his javelin in the giant’s gut. I sent a wind blade to slice the giant’s leg, keeping him off balance so that he couldn’t retaliate or make any final moves to hurt Percy or Audrey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym lifted her bronze disk from its pedestal. “Say goodbye, Polybotes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She spun the disk at the giant’s neck. Turned out, the rim was sharp.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Polybotes found it difficult to say goodbye, since he no longer had a head.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Der Meister von Allem</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Following Tsuchi wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> a challenge, but she was seriously booking it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hunting down and finding our charges was never the issue - it was always overpowering their determination and will to stay in this world and dragging them to the Underworld by force that was the hard part. But, I mean, that was our job.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I was happy to have at least been with Azrael for a few more minutes. Every little interaction with him was risky while he was still alive, but it was still comforting to know that my son was doing okay.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had been tearing myself to pieces when I learned he’d been taken into the Ward system and was so alone. He unconsciously sometimes slipped into the Veil, but nothing ever came of it, and he could never hear or see me or Ithuriel when we tried to visit him. We’d tried dropping him off in a safe location, back home with my old circus crew in Germany. Ithuriel hadn’t trusted it, but he didn’t exactly have a family or friends that he trusted Azrael with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His only friend had been Kandai, and Kandai had befriended me before introducing us. We’d been a trio, and yes, we had nice people we knew, but it wasn’t easy to make friends when you were a demigod - especially back in the day.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My circus crew had been made up of demigods, constantly on the move but with main branches in the cities to always have a place to go. We’d left Azrael with them, and for a short while, it was safe. Then, their group had been raided by the Wards and most of them were taken prisoner - including Azrael.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But now wasn’t the time to think about that. Azrael had started getting a handle on his powers, and one day he had finally gained the courage to escape. He’d run for a long time, and he’d been picked up by some good friends that would look after him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I dropped into the ruins where Tsuchi and Kandai were stationed as a base. Athens. Where the forces of Gaea had their little base - the giants, a great deal of monsters like Earthborn who were waiting for the chance to start the war once Gaea woke, and of course the Reanimations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who goes there?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I jumped and then sighed. A figure wrapped in a large black robe with the hood pulled up to cloak their face in shadow was standing beside me in the Veil. He was carrying an overly cheesy scythe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Urie, what’s with the stupid get up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>My husband shed the robe with a shrug, the fabric disappearing into the Veil’s energies. His scythe transformed back into his normal lance. “Ugh, you can never let me have my fun. We’re Grim Reapers. We should at least look the part to scare people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Working all the extra jobs as psychopomps with most of the gods out of commission isn’t an excuse to scare the dickens out of people. We’re normally on special cases, but with regular people who die and need to be escorted to the Underworld, you can’t just pretend that you’re Death and continue to circulate those ridiculous stereotypes about us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re no fun, Han. It’s not like it’s doing any real harm. I don’t scare them. I just look the part for their convenience. Some of them don’t believe me when I say I’m here to take them to the Underworld. People are so skeptical these days - even demigods!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “Where’s Kandai?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still here, waiting for something. Not sure what, though. He’s been fluctuating recently, so I’ve just been observing. Where’d Tsuchi go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To try and capture or kill Kaze, as far as I’m aware, but she got interrupted. She had a confrontation with…I think a Primordial. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> something to her…” I explained the whole encounter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ithuriel summoned a couch to plop down onto with his lance. I swear, he loved that thing more than me - and I’m the one who <em>made</em> it for him! “So…what? Did he try to purify her? You sense something wrong with her soul?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s definitely been disturbed somehow. I can’t say if it’s better or worse. I’m worried that he tried to either destroy her soul or consume it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If her soul’s impossible or difficult to retrieve, that’s something to report into the boss.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only time will tell. Than is so busy right now that I don’t wanna bother him. He’s taking over most of Hades’ duties as well while the god is incapacitated.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanatos put the capture of Tsuchi and Kandai as a high priority; Tsuchi coming into contact with a Primordial - with <em>Tartarus?</em> That definitely sounds like something to report.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, can we at least figure out what he <em>did</em> to her before we bother Than? I don’t want to have to give him multiple reports and bother him over and over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ithuriel shrugged. “Well, while we’re waiting, I guess we would get to work with more collecting. We can set the Veil to warn us when they’ve moved again. No point wasting time until they’re on the move again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “There must be </span>
  <em>
    <span>some</span>
  </em>
  <span> way to get past Gaea’s protection on them when they’re here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can only wait for those guys to defeat Gaea or at least for her presence to leave the area.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well then, back to work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I glanced down at Tsuchi, who was on her hands and knees with Kandai looking her over for damage. There wasn’t anything on the surface, but I could tell her life force and soul were in turmoil after whatever that Primordial did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I pursed my lips and turned to go help Ithuriel collect more souls. Hopefully we’d know what happened to Tsuchi soon enough.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Kaze</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Poison is a nasty habit.” Kymopoleia waved her hand and the murky clouds dissipated. “Secondhand poison can kill a person, you know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason wasn’t too fond of firsthand poison either, but he decided not to mention that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We grabbed Percy and Audrey, moving to prop them up against the temple wall, enveloping them in the airy shell of our venti. The oxygen was getting thin for Jason and the air itself was thin for my ventus after the fighting, but hopefully the air might help expel the poison from their lungs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed to work. Percy doubled over and began to retch, while Audrey hacked and sucked in gasping, ragged breaths.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh. Thanks,” Percy muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason exhaled with relief. “You had me worried there, bro.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened…?” Audrey muttered. “I feel…blech.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy blinked, cross-eyed. “I’m still a little fuzzy. But did you…promise Kym an action figure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The goddess loomed over us. “Indeed he did. And I expect him to deliver.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I looked up at her, hand on my chin. “Hm…I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> see it. We can design one or more depending on how you wish it to look. A pose, perhaps using your disk…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll definitely deliver,” Jason said. “When we win this war, I’m going to make sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> the gods get recognized.” He put a hand on Percy’s shoulder. “Our friend here started that process last summer. He made the Olympians promise to pay you guys more attention.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym sniffed. “We know what an Olympian promise is worth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which is why I’m going to finish the job.” Jason didn’t know where these words were coming from, but the idea felt absolutely right. “I’ll make sure none of the gods are forgotten at either camp. Maybe they’ll get temples, or cabins, or at least shrines-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or collectible trading cards,” Kym suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooo, that’s good!” Audrey exclaimed. “Mythomagic is already a game with mythology. We could look into new cards, design the specific stats and special abilities…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason smiled. “I’ll go back and forth between the camps until the job is done.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy whistled. “You’re talking about dozens of gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hundreds,” Kym corrected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well then,” Jason said, “it might take a while. But you’ll be first on the list, Kymopoleia…the storm goddess who beheaded a giant and saved our quest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym stroked her jellyfish hair. “That will do nicely.” She regarded Percy. “Though I am still sorry I won’t see you die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I get that comment a lot,” Percy said. “Now about our ship-?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Still in one piece,” said the goddess. “Not in very good shape, but you should be able to make it to Delos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” I said, bowing my head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We appreciate that,” Jason nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Percy agreed. “And, really, your husband Briares is a good dude. You should give him a chance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The goddess picked up her bronze disk. “Don’t push your luck, brother. Briares has fifty faces; all of them are ugly. He’s got a hundred hands, and he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> all thumbs around the house.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Percy relented. “Not pushing my luck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym turned over the disk, revealing straps on the bottom side like a shield. She slipped it over her shoulders, Captain America style. “I will be watching your progress. Polybotes was not boasting when he warned that your blood would awaken the Earth Mother. The giants are very confident of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My blood, personally?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym’s smile was even creepier than usual. “I am not an Oracle. But I heard what the seer Phineas told you in the city of Portland. You will face a sacrifice that you may not be able to mke, and it will cost you the world. You have yet to face your fatal flaw, my brother. Look around. All works of the gods and men eventually turn to ruins. Would it not be easier to flee into the depths with that girlfriend of yours?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and struggled to his feet. I helped Audrey rise as well, her muscles weak and trembling. “Juno offered me a choice like that, back when I found Camp Jupiter. I’ll give you the same answer. I don’t run when my friends need me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym turned up her palms. “And there is your flaw, being unable to step away. I will retreat to the depths and watch this battle unfold. You should know that the forces of the ocean are also at war. Your friend Hazel Levesque made quite an impression on the merpeople, and on their mentors, Aphros and Bythos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The fish pony dudes,” Percy muttered. “They didn’t want to meet me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Ichthyocentaurs were nice,” Audrey recalled. “The mermaids were so nice to sing with.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even now they are waging war for your sake,” Kym said, “trying to keep Gaea’s allies away from Long Island. Whether or not they will survive…that remains to be seen. As for you, Jason Grace, your path will be no easier than your friend’s. You will be tricked. You will face unbearable sorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason tried to keep from sparking. He wasn’t sure Percy or Audrey’s hearts could take the shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze Grigora, I know of what Gaea has done to you, your mother, and that other man. Your fate will be tragic no matter how you choose to face it, and one day Death </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> lay claim to your soul; all you can hope for is a fulfilling end to your life. And for you, dear sister, I thought I recognized Father’s handiwork on that jacket of yours.” Audrey looked down at her jacket, laced with the power of Poseidon. “For him to have given you that, even in his current state…he must be very afraid. You are wise and resourceful, Audrey Mavepo, but what happened to you back there…your fate, I believe, is set in stone. Whether or not you are a force for good or evil, that may be beyond your control. I admit, you still demonstrated a mild amount of awareness today - that’s more than I expected; though it was your first lapse into that state, so it may only get worse.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey frowned. “You know what happened today?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I may not be well known - yet - but I am an old goddess, and I heard stories from Polybotes and Gaea’s forces when I agreed to work with them. The web of fate they believe in and that the Fates are weaving is tangled beyond recognition, but there are consistencies that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> can make out. I can see much death in both your past and your future.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kym, you said you’re not an Oracle?” Jason repeated. “They should give you the job. You’re definitely depressing enough.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The goddess let loose her dolphin laugh. “You amuse me, son of Jupiter. I hope you live to defeat Gaea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks. Any pointers on defeating a goddess who can’t be defeated?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kymopoleia tilted her head. “Oh, but you know the answer. You are a child of the sky, with storms in your blood. A primordial god has been defeated once before. You know of whom I speak.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ouranos,” Audrey recalled, “the first god of the sky. But that means-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes.” Kym’s alien features took on an expression that almost resembled sympathy. “Let us hope it does not come to that. If Gaea </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> wake…well, your task will not be easy. But if you win, remember your promise, Pontifex.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason took a moment to process her words. “I’m not a priest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No?” Kym’s white eyes gleamed. “By the way, your venti servants say they wished to be freed. Since they have helped you, they hope you will let them go when you reach the surface. Yours, Jason Grace, promises he will not bother you a third time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A </span>
  <em>
    <span>third</span>
  </em>
  <span> time?” Jason repeated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kym paused, as if listening. “He says he joined the storm above to take revenge on you, but had he known how strong you’ve become since the Grand Canyon, he never would’ve approached your ship.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Grand Canyon…” Jason recalled the day on the Skywalk, when he’d first woken without his memories but before he’d come to Camp Half-Blood, when one of his jerk classmates turned out to be a wind spirit. “Dylan? Are you kidding me? I’m breathing </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dylan?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, I’m just gonna go back to breathing water now,” Audrey announced, stepping back out of the wind bubbles and into the ocean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Kym said. “That seems to be his name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason shuddered. “I’ll let him go as soon as I reach the surface. No worries.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Farewell, then,” said the goddess. “And may the Fates smile upon you…assuming the Fates survive.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>We headed out of the ruins. Though we needed to get back to the ship - Jason was running out of air (Dylan air - gross) and everyone on the Argo II would be worried about us - Percy and Audrey were still woozy and weak. The water would be the fastest way for them to recover, so we sat on the edge of the ruined golden dome for a few minutes to let the siblings catch their breath…or catch their water, whatever children of Poseidon catch when they’re at the bottom of the ocean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks, Jason,” Percy said. “You definitely saved our lives.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, that’s what we do for our friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right up there with giving Birthday gifts and friendship bracelets,” Audrey mused. “But really. Even with whatever happened to me, I conked out before I could beat Polybotes. I’m not sure I would’ve survived holding onto that power for much longer.” She rubbed her wrists. “And if Kaze hadn’t managed to hold off Tsuchi, we </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> might’ve been taken down by those restraints of hers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever power you possessed, you clearly did not have full control,” I agreed. “There were multiple personalities.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kym said that you had more control than she had expected,” Jason remembered. “Whoever and whatever possessed you, maybe you can learn to get a handle on it - no matter what grim stuff Kym foreshadowed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pursed her lips. “Maybe. I’ll ask Rei and Veon; maybe their Primordial-ness gives them experience with this sort of possession.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway, the Jupiter guy saving the Poseidon kids at the bottom of the ocean…maybe we can keep the details to ourselves?” Percy suggested. “Otherwise, I know </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll</span>
  </em>
  <span> certainly never hear the end of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Audrey smiled playfully. “Agreed. Let’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> not tell our parents, all right? Zeus has a big enough head as it is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason grinned. “You got it. How you two feeling?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better. Really hungry and exhausted after whatever possessed me sucked up my energies, but I’ll live.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Better,” Percy agreed. “I…I have to admit, when I was choking on that poison, I kept thinking about Akhlys, the misery goddess in Tartarus. I almost destroyed her with poison.” He shivered. “It felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but in a bad way. If Annabeth hadn’t stopped me-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But she did,” Jason said. “That’s another thing friends have to do for each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah… Thing is, as I was choking just now, I kept thinking: this is payback for Akhlys. The Fates are letting me die the same way I tried to kill that goddess. And…honestly, a part of me felt I deserved it. That’s why I didn’t try to control the giant’s poison like Audrey did and try to move it away from me. That probably sounds crazy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, if poison reminds you of Akhlys, then it’s totally valid for you to have not wanted to control it again,” Audrey insisted. “You went through </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Percy. It’s okay to…not be okay with some things that happened down there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason thought back to Ithaca, when he was despairing over the visit from his mom’s spirit. “I think I get it, Percy. Don’t beat yourself up over it. We made it out, that’s what matters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy studied Jason’s face. When Jason didn’t say anymore, he changed the subject. “What did Kym mean about defeating Gaea? Audrey, you mentioned Ouranos…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason stared at the silt swirling between the columns of the old palace. “The sky god…the Titans defeated him by calling him down to the earth. They got him away from his home territory, ambushed him, held him down, and cut him up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bob and his brothers,” Audrey said gently. “Koios, Krios, Hyperion, and Iapetus - north, south, east, and west.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason frowned. “I remember Krios, yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And I fought Hyperion,” Percy nodded. “Good times,” he said weakly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked like his nausea was coming back. The mention of Bob was clearly a sore point, but Audrey didn’t look regretful for bringing it up. Mourning Bob wouldn’t help him - remembering who he was, who Bob had <em>chosen</em> to be despite his past, could help make sure he could regenerate one day. Not as Iapetus, the Titan Lord of the West, but as Bob, hero and friend of the demigods, the best of the Titans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But how are we supposed to do what they did to Ouranos to Gaea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I recalled a line from the prophecy: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>To storm or fire the world must fall</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ Now we had an idea what that meant, but if we were right, Percy wouldn’t be able to help. In fact, he might unintentionally make things harder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t run when my friends need me,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Percy had said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>And there is your flaw,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Kym had warned, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>being unable to step away.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Today was July 27. In five days, we’d know if our theories were right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s get to Delos first,” Jason said. “Apollo and Artemis might have some advice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy nodded, though he didn’t seem satisfied with that answer. “Why did Kymopoleia call you a Pontiac?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason’s laugh literally cleared the air. “Pontifex. It means priest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Percy frowned. “Still sounds like a kind of car. ‘The new Pontifex XLS.’ Will you have to wear a collar and bless people?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re thinking of a Christian priest,” Audrey guessed. “Back in Rome, they used to have a pontifex maximus, who oversaw all the proper sacrifices and whatnot, to make sure none of the gods got mad.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which I offered to do…” Jason mused. “I guess it </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> sound like a pontifex’s job.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you meant it?” Percy asked. “You’re really going to try building shrines for all the minor gods?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. I never really thought about it before, but I like the idea of going back and forth between the two camps - assuming, you know, we make it through next week and the two camps still exist. What you did last year on Olympus, turning down immortality and asking the gods to play nice instead - that was noble, man.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy grunted. “Believe me, some days I regret the choice. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, you wanna turn down our offer? Okay, fine! ZAP! Lose your memory! Go to Tartarus!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did what a hero should do. I admire you for that. The least I can do, if we survive, is continue that work - make sure all the gods get some recognition. Who knows? If the gods get along better, maybe we can stop more of these wars from breaking out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That would most definitely be good,” Audrey agreed. “You know, you look different…</span>
  <em>
    <span>better</span>
  </em>
  <span> different. Does your wound still hurt?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My wound…” Jason had been so busy with the giant and the goddess, he’d forgotten about the sword wound in his gut, even though he’d been dying from it in sickbay only an hour ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He lifted his shirt and pulled away the bandages. No smoke. No bleeding. No scar. No pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s…gone,” he said, stunned. “I feel completely normal. What the heck?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You beat it, man!” Percy laughed. “You found your </span>
  <em>
    <span>own</span>
  </em>
  <span> cure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason paused to consider that. “I guess so.” Maybe putting aside his pain to help his friends had done the trick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jason you’ve been torn between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood, haven’t you?” Audrey pointed out. “You were born a Roman and became a Praetor of New Rome. But during your time at Camp Half-Blood, you were having such a good time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jason nodded. “I…honestly, I wasn’t sure where I would go if we made it out of this war. I kept putting off thinking about where I’d return to. I already gave my Praetor position to Frank, but I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> a Roman. I was thinking about staying at Camp Half-Blood if we managed to make peace, but maybe I can still go to Camp Jupiter - back and forth between </span>
  <em>
    <span>both</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what everyone kept saying about the wound affecting your </span>
  <em>
    <span>soul</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Audrey reasoned, “it probably related to the fact that you were torn on who you wanted to be - Roman or Greek, Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood. And now that you’ve decided that you don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to choose - that you can be </span>
  <em>
    <span>both</span>
  </em>
  <span> - you cured the wound on your soul and your body by extension.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He smiled. “Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roman or Greek…the difference didn’t matter. Like he’d told the ghosts at Ithaca, his family had just gotten bigger. Now he saw his place in it. He would keep his promise to the storm goddess. And because of that, Michael Varus’s sword meant nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Die a Roman.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No. If he had to die, he would die a son of Jupiter, a child of the gods - the blood of Olympus. But he wasn’t about to let himself get sacrificed - at least not without a fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on.” Jason clapped his friends on the back. “Let’s go check on our ship.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Given a choice between death and the Buford Zippy Mart, Nico would’ve had a tough time deciding. At least he knew his way around the Land of the Dead. Plus the food was fresher.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I still don’t get it,” Coach Hedge muttered as they roamed the center aisle. “They named a whole town after Leo’s table?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think the town was here first, Coach,” Nico said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do,” the stuffed poodle on his shoulder agreed. Oodles, Ane’s poodle familiar, was attached to Nico now that Ane wasn’t around, and Nico didn’t protest. Despite the stuffed animal’s childish look, it could still kill you with a single touch, so he resonated with its dark Underworld energies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh.” The coach picked up a box of powdered donuts. “Maybe you’re right. These look at least a hundred years old. I miss those Portuguese farturas.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico couldn’t think about Portugal without his arms hurting. Across his biceps, the werewolf claw marks were still swollen and red. The store clerk had asked Nico if he’d picked a fight with a bobcat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They bought a first-aid kit, a pad of paper (so Coach Hedge could write more paper airplane messages to his wife), some junk food and soda (since the banquet table in Reyna’s new magic tent only provided healthy food and fresh water), and some miscellaneous camping supplies for Coach Hedge’s useless but impressively complicated monster traps. Ane’s familiar jumped down and dashed away, hiding in the aisles and grabbing things for Ane. She was gravitating towards some things in the toy aisle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico had been hoping to find some fresh clothes. Two days since they’d fled San Juan, he was tired of walking around in his tropical ‘</span>
  <b>ISLA DEL ENCANTORICO</b>
  <span>’ shirt, especially since Coach Hedge had a matching one. Unfortunately, the Zippy Mart only carried T-shirts with Confederate flags and corny sayings like ‘</span>
  <b>KEEP CALM AND FOLLOW THE REDNECK</b>
  <span>.’ Nico decided he’d stick with parrots and palm trees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They walked back to the campsite down a two-lane road under the blazing sun. This part of South Carolina seemed to consist mostly of overgrown fields, punctuated by telephone poles and trees covered in kudzu vines. The town of Buford itself was a collection of portable metal sheds - six or seven, which was probably also the town’s population.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico wasn’t exactly a sunshine person, but for once he welcomed the warmth. It made him feel more substantial - anchored to the mortal world. With every shadow-jump, coming back got harder and harder. Even in broad daylight his hand passed through solid objects; his belt and sword kept falling around his ankles for no apparent reason; once, when he wasn’t looking where he was going, he walked straight through a tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane kept feeding him energy to solidify him whenever she noticed him slipping, and while she </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> manage to do so, he also felt colder and even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> disconnected from reality than he had before. A part of him feared that he was becoming a ghost. Nico’s skin was solid but cold as though his heart wasn’t beating; Nico sometimes had mini panic attacks thinking that he wasn’t breathing anymore. Whenever he saw Ane working with one of her Remnants, Nico got phantom pains when he saw their wounds and their overall dead states.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico remembered something Jason Grace had told him in the palace of Notus: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Maybe it’s time you come out of the shadows.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>If only I could</em>
  </b>
  <span>,’ Nico thought. For the first time in his life, he had begun to fear the dark, because he might melt into it permanently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico and Hedge had no trouble finding their way back to camp. The Athena Parthenos was the tallest landmark for miles around. In its new camouflage netting, it glittered silver like an extremely flashy forty-foot-tall ghost.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apparently, the Athena Parthenos had wanted them to visit a place with educational value, because she’d landed right next to a historical marker that read ‘</span>
  <b>MASSACRE OF BUFORD</b>
  <span>’ on a gravel turnout at the intersection of Nowhere and Nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s tent sat in a grove of trees about thirty yards back from the road. Nearby lay a rectangular cairn - hundreds of stones piled in the shape of an oversized grave with a granite obelisk for a headstone. Scattered around it were faded wreaths and crushed bouquets of plastic flowers, which made the place seem even sadder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aurum and Argentum were playing keep-away in the woods with one of the coach’s handballs. Ane threw the ball as far as she could (which was surprisingly far for her small size) and the metal hounds went sprinting after it. Ever since getting repaired by the Amazons, the metal dogs had been frisky and full of energy - unlike their owner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna sat crossed-legged at the entrance of the tent, staring at the memorial obelisk. She hadn’t said much since they fled San Juan two days ago. They’d also encountered no monsters, which made Nico uneasy. They’d had no further word from the Hunters or the Amazons. They didn’t know what happened to Hylla, or Thalia, or the giant Orion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico didn’t like the Hunters of Artemis. Tragedy followed them as surely as their gods and birds of prey. His sister Bianca had died after joining the Hunters. Then Thalia Grace had become their leader and started recruiting even more young women to their cause, which grated on Nico - as if Bianca’s death could be forgotten. As if she could be replaced. When Nico woke up at Barrachina and found Ane’s familiar with the Hunters’ note about kidnapping Reyna, he’d torn apart the courtyard in rage. He didn’t want the Hunters stealing another important person from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fortunately, he’d gotten Reyna back, but he didn’t like how brooding she had become. Every time he tried to ask her about the incident on the Calle San Jose - those ghosts on the balcony, all staring at her, whispering accusations - Reyna shut him down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They were familiar with her,” Ane said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know much more than that. We didn’t exactly have time to interview them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico had frowned. “She won’t tell you anything either?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane shrugged. “You know how ghosts are, Nico. It’s not that easy. Hylla seemed intent on reclaiming her past, but Reyna did not seem so eager.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yes, Nico knew something about ghosts. Letting them get inside your head was dangerous. He wanted to help Reyna, but since his own strategy was to deal with his problems alone, spurning anyone who tried to get close, he couldn’t exactly criticize Reyna for doing the same thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She glanced up as they approached. “I figured it out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What historical site this is?” Hedge asked. “Good, ‘cause it’s been driving me crazy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Battle of Waxhaws.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, right…” Hedge nodded sagely. “That was a vicious little smackdown.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane glanced around, trying to sense any restless spirits in the area, but she felt nothing. Unusual for a battleground. She glanced at Nico, and he had a similarly unnerved look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure?” Nico asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In 1780,” Reyna explained. “The American Revolution. Most of the Colonial leaders were Greek demigods. The British generals were Roman demigods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because England was like Rome back then,” Ane guessed. “A rising empire.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna picked up a crushed bouquet. “I think I know why we landed here. It’s my fault.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, come on,” Hedge scoffed. “The Buford Zippy Mark isn’t anybody’s fault. Those things just happen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna picked at the faded plastic flowers. “During the Revolution, four hundred Americans got overtaken here by British cavalry. The Colonial troops tried to surrender, but the British were out for blood. They massacred the Americans even after they threw down their weapons. Only a few survived.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico supposed he should have been shocked. But after traveling through the Underworld, hearing so many stories of evil and death, a wartime massacre hardly seemed newsworthy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane had been down in Tartarus, and more than that she had been killed many times thanks to the Wards, so she hardly batted an eye at the sound of the cruelty of humans. “Reyna, how is that your fault?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The British commander was Banastre Tarleton.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge snorted. “I’ve heard of him. Crazy dude. They called him Benny the Butcher.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes…” Reyna took a shaky breath. “He was a son of Bellona.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Nico stared at the oversized grave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It still bothered both Nico and Ane that they couldn’t sense any spirits. Hundreds of soldiers massacred at this spot…that should’ve sent out </span>
  <em>
    <span>some</span>
  </em>
  <span> kind of death vibe. Not only that, they were killed unjustly - they had </span>
  <em>
    <span>surrendered</span>
  </em>
  <span>. There would be angry spirits, those who wanted revenge on Reyna at least for being a daughter of Bellona.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico sat next to Reyna, and decided to take a risk. “So you think we were drawn here because you have some sort of connection to the ghosts. Like what happened in San Juan?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a ten count she said nothing, turning the plastic bouquet in her hand. “I don’t want to talk about San Juan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should.” Nico felt like a stranger in his own body. Why was he encouraging Reyna to share? It wasn’t his style or his business. Nevertheless, he kept talking. “The main thing about ghosts - most of them have lost their voices. In Asphodel, millions of them wander around aimlessly, trying to remember who they were. You know why they end up like that? Because in life they never took a stand one way or another. They never spoke out, so they were never heard. Your voice is your identity. If you don’t use it,” he said with a shrug, “you’re halfway to Asphodel already.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna scowled. “Is that your idea of a pep talk?”</span>
</p><p><span>“Well if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my existence, it’s that I have little time to be myself,” Ane said. “I am a monster, Reyna. I will one day be killed and returned to Tartarus - spending years in agony as I am reformed, molecule by molecule, and then traversing the dank Pit for millennia on end with no company other than monsters who want to kill me or who cower from me. This is my first time in the Overworld for some 200 years, and believe me, I’m not wasting a moment of it. This trip with you, while dangerous and trying, has been wonderful compared to the fate I am facing.” She reached down and grabbed one of the faded wreaths. “</span>One day, might I become a mindless monster, my humanity fading away during the long years in a pit of insanity and madness? I will not hold my tongue when I know I might one day lose myself, lose my reason to ever use it again.”</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge cleared his throat. “This is getting too psychological for me. I’m going to write some letters.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He took his notepad and headed into the woods. The last day or so, he’d been writing a lot - apparently not just to Mellie. The coach wouldn’t share details, but he hinted that he was calling in some favors to help with the quest. For all they knew, he was writing to Jackie Chan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico opened his shopping bag. He pulled out a box of Little Debbie Oatmeal creme pies and offered one to Reyna.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wrinkled her nose. “Those look like they went stale in dinosaur times.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe. But I’ve got a big appetite these days. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Any</span>
  </em>
  <span> kind of food tastes good…except maybe pomegranate seeds. I’m done with those.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s familiar dug into the bag and dragged out a bag of Swedish Fish, struggling to get the slick plastic bag in its fingerless grip before heading over to Ane. The small girl sat down and took the bag from her familiar, ripping it open and finding stale but otherwise delicious red fish gummies. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Any</span>
  </em>
  <span> food in the Overworld is precious to me,” she explained. I always loved sweets as a child, but I had so little of them in Tartarus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna picked out a creme pie and took a bite. “Those ghosts in San Juan…they were my ancestors.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico and Ane waited. The breeze ruffled the camouflage netting over the Athena Parthenos.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Ramírez-Arellano family goes back a long way,” Reyna continued. “I don’t know the whole story. My ancestors lived in Spain when it was a Roman province. My great-great-something-grandfather was a conquistador. He came over to Puerto Rico with Ponce de León.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One of the ghosts on the balcony was wearing conquistador armor,” Nico recalled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…is your whole family descended from Bellona? I thought you and Hylla were her daughters, not legacies.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Too late, Nico realized he shouldn’t have brought up Hylla. A look of despair passed over Reyna’s face, though she managed to hide it quickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> her daughters,” Reyna said. “We’re the first actual children of Bellona in the Ramírez-Arellano family. And Bellona has always favored our clan. Millennia ago, she decreed that we would play pivotal roles in many battles.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like you’re doing now,” Ane pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna brushed crumbs from her chin. “Perhaps. Some of my ancestors have been heroes. Some have been villains. You saw the ghost with the gunshot wounds in the chest?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico nodded. “A pirate?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The most famous in Puerto Rican history. He was known as the Pirate Cofresí, but his family name was Ramírez de Arellano. Our house, the family villa, was built with money from treasure that he buried.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Roberto Cofresí y Ramírez de Arellano,” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, Nico felt like a little kid again. He was tempted to blurt out: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s so cool!</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Even before he got into Mythomagic, he’d been obsessed with pirates. Probably that was one reason he’d been so smitten with Percy, a son of the sea god.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And the other ghosts?” Ane asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna took another bite of creme pie. “The guy in the U.S. Navy uniform…he’s my great-great-uncle from World War II, the first Latino submarine commander. You get the idea. A lot of warriors. Bellona was our patron goddess for generations.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But she never had demigod children in your family - until you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The goddess…she fell in love with my father, Julian. He was a soldier in Iraq. He was-” Reyna’s voice broke. She tossed aside the plastic bouquet of flowers. “I can’t do this. I can’t talk about him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A cloud passed overhead, blanketing the woods in shadows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico and Ane didn’t want to push Reyna. What right did they really have?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico set down his oatmeal creme pie…and noticed that his fingers were turning to smoke. The sunlight returned. Ane reached over and grabbed his wrist. His hands became solid again, but Nico’s nerves jangled. He felt as if he’d been pulled back from the edge of a high balcony.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Your voice is your identity,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ he’d told Reyna. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>If you don’t use it, you’re halfway to Asphodel already.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hated when his own advice applied to himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My dad gave me a present once,” Nico said. “It was a zombie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna stared at him. “What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“His name is Jules-Albert. He’s French.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A…French zombie?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hades isn’t the greatest dad, but occasionally he has these ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>want-to-know-my-son</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ moments. I guess he thought the zombie was a peace offering. He said Jules-Albert could be my chauffeur.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The corner of Reyna’s mouth twitched. “A French zombie chauffeur.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico realized how ridiculous it sounded. He’d never told anyone about Jules-Albert - not even Hazel. But he kept talking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hades had this idea that I should, you know, try to act like a modern teenager. Make friends. Get to know the twenty-first century. He vaguely understood that mortal parents drive their kids around a lot. He couldn’t do that. So his solution was a zombie.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To take you to the mall,” Ane mused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Or the drive-through at In-N-Out Burger,” Reyna added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose.” Nico’s nerves began to settle. “Because nothing helps you make friends faster than a rotting corpse with a French accent.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna laughed. “I’m sorry…I shouldn’t make fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay. Point is…I don’t like talking about my dad either. But sometimes,” he said, looking her in the eyes, “you have to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane shrugged. “I don’t have that problem, much. My Papa was great. While I had him with me, at least. We went to a pet store once and I played with a stuffed toy sitting on one of the shelves, and then the next day he bought it for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Her stuffed poodle climbed onto her head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lemme guess,” Reyna said with a small smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I hated it at first, at least according to my Papa. I threw away the toy in a fit, he said. Though I couldn’t possibly tell you why. I was probably upset at something else. But somehow she became my new best friend. He wanted to name it Noodles, because I liked noodles. We started naming things that ended in ‘Ooodles,’ like ‘poodles’ - he was teaching me English at the time, so we were also practicing - and…then we just decided on Oodles somehow. I kept calling it ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Pūdoru</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ most of the time anyway. Oodles was her English name.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” the poodle agreed. “Do…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your English is pretty good,” Nico said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“As is yours,” she countered. “Though I didn’t like English. We moved to Britain from Japan not long after I was born, and my Papa insisted I learned his mother tongue. But in return, I didn’t like being forced to use English to speak with other English people. Japanese was between me and my Papa alone, and using it got us treated like second-class citizens. The Brits…weren’t fond of immigrants. You had to be all posh and rich to get any respect, a high-class citizen. Luckily I didn’t grow old enough to be stuffed into a corset.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why’d you go to Britain then?” Reyna asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane smiled. “My Papa had promised my mother they would travel there one day - travel the </span>
  <em>
    <span>world</span>
  </em>
  <span>, really. But my mother was never supposed to come to the mortal world. Her visit to my father was a chance encounter when she was sneaking into the real world; she always wanted to experience humanity, but she was always forbidden because of how dangerous it was. She…ended up getting people killed when they shouldn’t have been so that she could stay with my Papa, but then she realized how dangerous she really was on this plane of existence. I was…her gift to my Papa - something to remember her by, to apologize for not being able to stay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shook her head. “My Papa loved me. He told me how much I looked like my mother - or at least the woman my godly mother possessed during most of their time together. He took me to Britain, saying that he promised it to my mother. He became a doctor with his Apollo heritage, which got him a good income and plenty of respect from his colleagues and those who knew his talents. Sometimes we had people who still didn’t like us since we were from out of the country, but he was careful. He was careful to avoid monsters so that we didn’t have to move around a lot, and he was quick to dispatch any that found us. It was just normal to have to be on the lookout for threats. I went to school, we bought an apartment building and fixed it up so that we could rent out to other immigrants. He often had long and weird hours, but he always made time for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over in the woods, Coach Hedge muttered to himself as he wrote. Three paper airplanes were already spiraling upwards in the breeze, heading to gods knew where.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held up her hand. A small orb of light formed in her hand, but quickly flickered out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He could catch sunlight with ease, then toss the little ball of captured sun into the ceiling and make it rain down stars…” She shook her head. “I can’t say anything about how bad my father was. He was good. He was human. My great-grandmother didn’t like me much. Her daughter fell in love with a god and my dad was the result. My grandmother died because of monster attacks, so my dad was raised by his grandmother - but he was basically disowned once I was born. She couldn’t stand both her daughter </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> her grandson falling in love with gods only to have their lives ruined. My point is…family is tough when you’re related to the gods in </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> way. I was lucky, I’m sorry that you weren’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s face relaxed. “You don’t need to apologize.” Her expression turned serious. “I never knew my father in his better days, but Hylla said he used to be gentler when she was very small, before I was born. He was a good soldier - fearless, disciplined, cool under fire. He was handsome. He could be very charming. Bellona blessed him, as she had with so many of my ancestors, but that wasn’t enough for my dad. He wanted her for his wife.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane tilted her head. “So…slightly arrogant too?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do,” Ane’s poodle agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico shrugged. “Great warriors tend to think they can have whatever they want so long as they can crush any opposition in war.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My father dedicated himself completely to Bellona,” Reyna continued. “It’s one thing to respect the power of war. It’s another thing to fall in love with it. I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to win Bellona’s heart. My sister was born just before he went to Iraq for his last tour of duty. He was honorably discharged, came home a hero. If…if he’d been able to adjust to a civilian life, everything might have been all right.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But he couldn’t,” Nico guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“PTSD?” Ane asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna shook her head. “It’s more complicated than that. Shortly after he got back, he had one last encounter with the goddess…that’s the, um, reason I was born. Bellona gave him a glimpse of the future. She explained why our family was so important to her. She said the legacy of Rome would never fail as long as one of our bloodline remained, fighting to defend our homeland. Those words…I think she meant them to be reassuring, but my father became fixated on them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“War can be hard to get over,” Nico said, remember Pietro, one of his neighbors from his childhood in Italy. Pietro had come back from Mussolini’s African campaign in one piece, but after shelling Ethiopian civilians with mustard gas, his mind was never the same.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“People react to it in all different ways,” Ane agreed. Her father had dealt with people brought in from war who were deemed unfit for combat because of their wounds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One time, Ane was sitting in the waiting room - as she often had to do when her father was at work - playing with the toys and her poodle. Her father had returned from some job, but a man saw him and started yelling about how her Papa needed to fix him better so that he could return to the front lines. Her father had tried to calmly explain that he physically couldn’t do anything more (and his Apollo healing skills failing meant he was being serious) but things escalated and Ane was nearly hurt in the process when the man realized she was his daughter and attempted a hostage situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite the heat, Reyna drew her cloak around her. “Part of the problem was post-traumatic stress, you’re right. He couldn’t stop thinking about the war. And then there was the constant pain - a roadside bomb left shrapnel in his shoulder and chest. But it was more than that. Over the years, as I was growing up, he…he changed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane frowned, but neither her nor Nico responded. He’d never had anyone talk to him this openly before, except maybe for Hazel. He felt like he was watching a flock of birds settle on a field. One loud sound might startle them away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He became paranoid,” Reyna said. “He thought Bellona’s words were a warning that our bloodline would be exterminated and the legacy of Rome would fail. He saw enemies everywhere. He collected weapons. He turned our house into a fortress. At night, he would lock Hylla and me in our rooms. If we sneaked out, he would yell at us and throw furniture and…well, he terrified us. At times, he even thought </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> were the enemies. He became convinced we were spying on him, trying to undermine him. Then the ghosts started appearing. I guess they’d always been there, but they picked up on my father’s agitation and began to manifest. They whispered to him, feeding his suspicions. Finally one day…I can’t tell you for sure when, I realized he had ceased to be my father. He had become one of the ghosts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A cold tide rose in Nico’s chest. “A mania,” he speculated. “I’ve seen it before. A human withers away until he’s not human anymore. Only his worst qualities remain. His insanity…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was clear from Reyna’s expression that his explanation wasn’t helping.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever he was,” Reyna said, “he became impossible to live with. Hylla and I escaped the house as often as we could, but eventually we’d come…back…and face his rage. We didn’t know what else to do. He was our only family. The last time we returned, h-he was so angry he was literally glowing. He couldn’t physically touch things anymore, but he could move them…like a poltergeist, I guess. He tore up the floor tiles. He ripped open the sofa. Finally he tossed a chair and it hit Hylla. She collapsed. She was only knocked unconscious, but I thought she was dead. She’d spent so many years protecting me…I just lost it. I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find - a family heirloom, the Pirate Cofresí’s saber (</span>
  <b>AN: Sad moment but also there was a typo where this was spelled Confresí in the actual text</b>
  <span>). I-I didn’t know it was Imperial gold. I ran at my father’s spirit and…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You vaporized him,” Ane guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I killed my own father.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Nico insisted. “Reyna, no. That wasn’t him. That was a ghost. Even worse: a mania. You were protecting your sister.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She twisted the silver ring on her finger. “You don’t understand. Patricide is the worst crime a Roman can commit. It’s unforgivable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t kill your father,” Ane insisted. “The man was already dead - you dispelled a ghost! It was killing a monster, Reyna, no matter if he gave birth to you-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t matter!” Reyna sobbed. “If word of this got out at Camp Jupiter-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’d be executed,” said a new voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the edge of the woods stood a Roman legionnaire in full armor, holding a pilum. A mop of brown hair hung in his eyes. His nose had obviously been broken at least once, which made his smile look even more sinister.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you for your confession, </span>
  <em>
    <span>former</span>
  </em>
  <span> praetor. You’ve made my job much easier.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I shouldn't leave it on that cliffhanger, I know! I'm working on the next chapter, I swear, but there are a couple plot arcs happening at the same time so it takes a bit more concentration than normal to keep it all organized. Hopefully I'll post the next chapter the moment it's done.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Judgment and Justice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yeah so...this chapter's been done for a while...but I got sucked into the Persona 5 fandom. Anyone who knows anything about Persona 5 will know that investing hundreds of hours into just PLAYING the game is normal - let alone the speculating and fandom dive that comes after a main playthrough. I am in love. And only about 2/3 of the way through the game so I've been a bit distracted investing all my free time into Persona 5. Not the Royal version BTW. No, there's even MORE in the Royal version.</p><p>But I remember to post! Yay!<br/>Considering how few comments I get, I can only assume how many actually look forward to my updates. Then again, I often don't comment until a story's done either - especially when it feels like the story is going to be completed if I just wait it out. Meh, I keep posting either way BECAUSE I CAN!</p><p>Anyway, it's mostly the idea that I have to edit something I've already written and moved on from that always causes me to procrastinate. But when I go back and read something and find an error, it takes like five steps to edit it on both Fanfic and Archive of Our Own, so I'd rather dive in with no regrets. Or a few regrets, but not as many.</p><p>The second part of this story kinda...dragged out. Whoops!</p><p>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge chose that moment to burst out into the clearing, waving a paper airplane yelling, “Good news, everyone!” He froze when he saw the Roman. “Oh…nevermind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickly crumpled the airplane and ate it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna, Nico, and Ane got to their feet. Aurum and Argentum scampered to Reyna’s side and growled at the intruder. How this guy had gotten so close with </span>
  <em>
    <span>none</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them noticing?! Ane didn’t understand. Her Remnants were scouting the area!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bryce Lawrence,” Reyna said. “Octavian’s newest attack dog.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Roman inclined his head. His eyes were green, but not sea green like Percy’s…more like pond scum green.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The augur has many attack dogs,” Bryce said. “I’m just the lucky one who found you. Your Graecus friend here-” he pointed his chin at Nico “-he was easy to track. He and that monster stink of the Underworld.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico unsheathed his sword. “You know the Underworld? Would you like me to arrange a visit?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce laughed. His front teeth were two different shades of yellow. “Do you think you can frighten me? I’m a descendant of Orcus, the god of broken vows and eternal punishment. I’ve heard the screams in the Fields of Punishment first hand. They’re music to my ears. Soon, I’ll be adding one more damned soul to the chorus.” He grinned at Reyna. “Patricide, eh? Octavian will love this news. You are under arrest for multiple violations of Roman law.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You son of a bitch, I’ll </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill</span>
  </em>
  <span> you!” Ane snapped. “You think the Fields of Punishment are nice, well how about I introduce you to Tartarus-?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico snatched Ane’s shoulder before she could run forward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>being</span>
  </em>
  <span> here is against Roman law,” Reyna said firmly. “Romans don’t quest alone. A mission has to be led by someone of centurion rank or higher. You’re in probatio, and even giving you </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> rank was a mistake. You have no right to arrest me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce shrugged. “In times of war, some rules have to be flexible. But don’t worry. Once I bring you in for trial, I’ll be rewarded with full membership in the legion. I imagine I’ll be promoted to centurion too. Doubtless there will be vacancies after the coming battle. Some officers won’t survive, especially if their loyalties aren’t in the right place.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge hefted his bat. “I don’t know the proper Roman etiquette, but can I bash this kid now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A faun,” Bryce said. “Interesting. I heard the Greeks actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>trusted</span>
  </em>
  <span> their goat men.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge bleated. “I’m a satyr. And you can trust I’m going to put this bat upside your head, you little punk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The coach advanced, but as soon as his foot touched the cairn, the stones rumbled like they were coming to a boil. Out of the gravesite, skeletal warriors erupted - spartoi in the tattered remains of British redcoat uniforms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hedge scrambled away, but the first two skeletons grabbed his arms and lifted him off the ground. The coach dropped his bat and kicked his hooves. “Lemme go, ya stupid boneheads!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The grave spewed more dead British soldiers - five, ten, twenty, they multiplied so quickly that Reyna and her metal dogs were surrounded before Nico even thought to raise his sword. How could they </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> have sensed so many dead, so close at hand?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I forgot to mention,” Bryce said, “I’m actually not alone on this quest. As you can see, I have backup. These redcoats promised quarter to the colonials. Then they butchered them. Personally, I like a good massacre, but because they broke their oaths, their spirits were damned, and they are perpetually under the power of Orcus. Which means they are also under </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> control.” He pointed to Reyna. “Seize the girl.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The spartoi surged forward. Aurum and Argentum took down the first few, but they were quickly wrestled to the ground, skeletal hands clamped over their muzzles, the redcoats grabbed Reyna’s arms. For undead creatures, they were surprisingly quick.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bastard!” Ane dived for Bryce himself, shoving skeletons out of her way and occasionally ducking between their legs. She activated 498 and her ashes to dissolve all the skeletons that tried to touch her and easily overpowered them to launch herself at Bryce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held up his pilum and Ane made contact with the Imperial gold, both the metal and her hands smoking from the touch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Orcus, huh? I’ll be delighted to take that power away from you. I have absorbed the energies of the scepter of Diocletian. Roman armies of the dead still serve me as well!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s familiar shouted, “Do!” and then began glowing with the sickly dark purple energies that the scepter of Diocletian had once emanated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Skeletons in Roman attire and battle armor began crawling out of the ground as well, automatically attacking Bryce’s undead warriors - who were also still coming.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico slashed at the spartoi, but his sword passed harmlessly through them. He exerted his will, ordering the skeletons to dissolve. They acted as if he didn’t exist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong, son of Hades?” Bryce’s voice was filled with fake sympathy. “Losing your grip?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico tried to push his way through the skeletons. There were too many. Bryce, Reyna, and Coach Hedge might as well have been behind a metal wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico, get out of here!” Reyna shouted. “Get to the statue and leave!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, off you go!” Bryce agreed. He swung his pilum and Ane was thrown back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were plenty of Roman skeleton warriors here, but most of them were still under Bryce’s control, and so the ones that Ane was having to summon were being pulled through magic from a distance away - she couldn’t get as many skeletons there as fast, and she didn’t know the actual Roman commands in Latin, and so she was having to mentally control their actions directly. Her skeletons were tougher and could take more hits, but as they plowed through the spartoi, more of them charged in to create a wall of bones through their sheer numbers alone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course, you realize that your next shadow-jump will be your last,” Bryce went on. “You know you don’t have the strength to survive another. But by all means, take the Athena Parthenos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane scoffed. “Ugh, I owe Hylla a slap for that one! I </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> it would happen!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulled out Kaze’s weapon and summoned her bow. She swung around and dissolved the line of Bryce’s spartoi that were trying to close in on her and keep her from reaching Bryce again. Her familiar was taking control of the armies from the Diocletian power while Ane charged at Bryce again. The wall of his spartoi was thick, and Ane’s numbers were struggling to make it to Reyna while also helping Ane push through the line.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico glanced down. He still held his Stygian sword, but his hands were dark and transparent like smoky glass. Even in the direct sunlight, he was dissolving. “Stop this!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I’m not doing a thing,” Bryce said. “But I am curious to see what will happen. If you take the statue, you’ll disappear with it forever, right in oblivion. If you </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> take it…well, I have orders to bring Reyna in alive to stand trial for treason. I have no orders to bring </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> in alive, or the faun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Satyr!” the coach yelled. He kicked a skeleton in its bony crotch, which seemed to hurt Hedge more than the redcoat. “Ow! Stupid British dead guys!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce lowered his javelin and poked the coach in the belly. “I wonder what this one’s pain tolerance would be. I’ve experimented on all kinds of animals. I even killed my own centurion once. I’ve never tried a faun…excuse me, </span>
  <em>
    <span>a satyr</span>
  </em>
  <span>. You reincarnate, don’t you? How much pain can you take before you turn into a patch of daisies?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Broken oaths…” Ane realized. She swung her bow and cleared out the redcoats around her, trying to charge in at Bryce once more. Ane had the power of Styx from the Curse that allowed her freedom from Tartarus. The wrath of Styx might give her some kind of edge against Bryce’s constant oath-breaking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Meanwhile Nico’s anger turned as cold and dark as his blade. He’d been morphed into a few plants himself, and he didn’t appreciate it. He hated people like Bryce Lawrence, who inflicted pain just for fun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leave him alone,” Nico warned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce raised an eyebrow. “Or what? By all means, try something Underworld-y, Nico. I’d love to see it. I have a feeling anything major will make you fade out permanently. Go ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane glanced at Nico, but had to focus on swinging her weapon infused with her power to keep back the spartoi closing her in. Her skeletal troops from the power of Diocletian were holding the line to keep herself from getting taken over, and she was moving closer to both Nico and the line separating her and Hedge from Nico. She wanted to summon her entire army of Remnants to rip these redcoats apart, but she knew she’d never be able to sustain them all in this world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna struggled. “Bryce, forget about them. If you want me as your prisoner, fine. I’ll go willingly and face Octavian’s stupid trial.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A fine offer.” Bryce turned his javelin, letting the tip hover a few inches from Reyna's eyes. “You really don’t know what Octavian has planned, do you? He’s been busy pulling in favors, spending the legion’s money.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna clenched her fists. “Octavian has no right-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He has the right of </span>
  <em>
    <span>power</span>
  </em>
  <span>. You forfeited your authority when you ran off to the ancient lands. On August first, your Greek friends at Camp Half-Blood will find out what a powerful enemy Octavian is. I’ve seen the designs for his machines…even </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> impressed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico’s bones felt like they were changing into helium, the way they’d felt when the god Favonius turned him into a breeze. Ane locked eyes with Reyna before she redirected her gaze to Nico. Her strength surged through him - a wave of courage and resilience that made him feel substantial again, anchored to the mortal world. Of course! Ane forgot that Reyna’s power could be used over a distance - unlike Ane who had to make direct contact with Nico to help him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even surrounded by the dead and facing execution, Reyna Ramírez-Arellano had a huge reservoir of bravery to share.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico,” she said, “do what you need to do. I’ve got your back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce chuckled, clearly enjoying himself. “Oh, Reyna. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You’ve got his back?</span>
  </em>
  <span> It’s going to be so fun dragging you before a tribunal, forcing you to confess that you killed your father. I hope they’ll execute you in the ancient way - sewn into a sack with a rabid dog, then thrown into a river. I’ve always wanted to see that. I can’t wait until your little secret comes out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Until your little secret comes out</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bryce flicked the point of his pilum across Reyna’s face, leaving a line of blood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Nico’s rage exploded. Ane’s poodle fell off of Ane’s head from the sudden and loud screaming that Nico released.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane heard laughter ringing out throughout the area, a dark hum that couldn’t be heard by mortal ears. She held up her hands, glowing with the bright green aura of Curse’s power.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <b>
    <em>Punish him. Punish he who you deem unjust. You hold judgment, the power to choose your fate - and that of others. Oathbreaker, do you have the strength to choose to damn another, playing a god beyond even the Fates? Even knowing you are as bad as him, perhaps worse, are you willing to accept your fate?</em>
  </b>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do?” Ane’s familiar jumped onto her shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded towards the stuffed animal. “Right.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The air around Nico dropped to freezing, the ground blackened, and in one horrible cry, he unleashed a flood of pain and anger on everyone in the clearing. Ane, Reyna, and the coach experienced his journey through Tartarus, his capture by the giants, his days wasting away inside that bronze jar. They felt Nico’s anguish from his days on the Argo II, and his encounter with Cupid in the ruins of Salona. They heard his unspoken challenge to Bryce Lawrence, loud and clear: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You want secrets? Here.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane dropped her hands to the ground and spread the power of Curse through the blackened ground, wisps of pale green magic gripping onto Nico’s anguish and amplifying the power that it granted him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The spartoi disintegrated into ashes, leaving Ane’s warriors standing confused and alone - especially with Ane’s poodle having fallen off and dropping the controls. The rocks of the cairn turned white with frost. Bryce Lawrence stumbled, clutching his head, both nostril bleeding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh oh,” a voice crooned. Ane saw a punk girl that first mistook for Thalia Grace standing with her arms crossed a short distance away. “Looks like they have more juice than anticipated. I might’ve overdone it a little.” She giggled. “I’ve always wanted to see this. Have fun, dear traitor.” She wiggled her fingers at Bryce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico marched towards him. He grabbed Bryce’s probatio tablet and ripped it off his neck. “You aren’t worthy of this,” Nico growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The earth split under Bryce’s feet. He sank up to his waist. “Stop!” Bryce clawed at the dirt and plastic bouquets, but his body kept sinking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane calmly joined Nico looking down upon Bryce. Her Curse magic oozed from the crevice consuming Bryce and manifested into an army of wriggling hands, solidifying and grabbing onto Bryce’s body, clawing at his clothing and grabbing his arms to prevent him from clawing at the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You took an oath to the legion.” Nico’s breath steamed in the cold. “You broke its rules. You inflicted pain. You killed your own centurion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I didn’t! I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You should’ve died for your crimes,” Nico continued. “That was the punishment. Instead you got exile. You should have stayed away. Your father Orcus may not approve of broken oaths. But my father Hades </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> doesn’t approve of those who escape punishment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That word didn’t make sense to Nico. The Underworld had no mercy. It only had justice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your former punishment was unbefitting of a man of your twisted caliber,” Ane spat. “The living deemed you worthy of mere exile. Now you shall now face the judgment of the dead. And I deem you guilty of the highest treason; you shall be condemned to the damnation of Tartarus’s power.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re already dead,” Nico declared. “You’re a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won’t be sharing any secrets.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!” Bryce’s body turned dark and smoky. He slipped into the earth, up to his chest. The hands from Ane’s Curse now clawed at Bryce's neck and head, trying to pull and shove him down under. “No, I am Bryce Lawrence! I’m alive!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next sound from Bryce’s mouth was a chattering whisper. His face became indistinct. He could have been anyone - just another nameless spirit among millions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She reached down and patted the spirit on the head. “Bye-bye.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her finger glowed and the light that was once Bryce Lawrence darkened, losing the energy that was even holding it in this plane of existence. Her poodle jumped onto her shoulder and Ane passed the light to it. The power of Orcus was absorbed into the stuffed animal, joining the power sapped from the scepter of Diocletian. Ane smiled, her eyes glowing with the sickly green glow of the Curse and the mild insanity of a monster from Tartarus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Begone,” Nico ordered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hands of Curse multiplied and completely consumed the spirit, pulling whatever remained of it down into the crevice. The earth closed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico looked back and saw that his friends were safe. Reyna and the coach stared at them in horror. Reyna’s face was bleeding; Aurum and Argentum turned in circles, as if their mechanical brains had short-circuited.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s skeletons were dismissed, shattering and collapsing. Nico collapsed along with them.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been a couple days I think.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even with the sun to guide me, it was hard to keep track. For some reason, I couldn’t remember if it had been three or four days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine had returned from whatever Sandman had dragged her away to and had pulled me close to the bars with her prehensile hair, pressing her finger to my forehead. My body had instantly surged with a flood of energy, curing the thirst and hunger that had unconsciously been building throughout my entire stay. I hadn’t been able to sleep that night, despite being wrapped in my comfortable blanket - not because I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>uncomfortable</span>
  </em>
  <span> in any way, but just because I wasn’t tired.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Forge came in one time, knocked on the bars, then left. According to Famine, he was in charge of making sure that the prison was intact at regular intervals, and so that had been his lame attempt at saying that he’d checked that the prison was solid before going to work. I couldn’t help my smile at how…well, how utterly human that was of him - the immortal creation of Hephaestus that was supposedly very inhuman.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I’m stuck here until…when exactly?” I inquired.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Until August first is what Boss said,” Famine informed me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “And then? On August first?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will be brought with us to help subdue the Primordials.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what if I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll want to. You may be strong, but we’ve multiple means of making you do what we want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can’t?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Like I told you before, I know </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span> I’m supposed to do and that I can supposedly </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> it, but that doesn’t mean I even know where to start. The Primordials…touching and moving them isn’t something that you just </span>
  <em>
    <span>learn</span>
  </em>
  <span> to do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine frowned. “Perhaps you </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> need some training…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Training?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well yes. You’re inexperienced and if you don’t have proper training you’ll be of no use to us. I’ve brought this up to Boss and the others, but Boss doesn’t seem concerned and so neither are the rest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You all trust Boss unconditionally, don’t you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s the strongest of us and no doubt the most intelligent. She has a prophetic sense, and so we always trust that she knows what she’s doing when she tells us things and holds her tongue in other situations.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So if you’re all so smart and strong, why do you work for the Wards? Why don’t you just run, do whatever you want, be free?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine frowned, the energy draining from her eyes. “For many of us, it’s all we’ve ever known.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But Rei said you’ve been around for thousands of years, far longer than the Wards.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “I may be the only one. Forge is a machine brought to life by the Four Winds. He used to work in Hephaestus’s workshop before he was taken in by the Wards; all he ever knew was servitude. Mirage is an immortal manifestation of the Mist, but they are very young, not much older than anyone else on the team. Iota’s older, but not nearly as old as Forge or I. She has never been good at making decisions for herself. She supports others; she is not a leader. That is the story about most of the others - we have lived and been trained as servants, and the Wards only approved of our current position because they knew we would not stray.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They put you under Boss?” I guessed. “She has a way to keep you all under control. But are you really <em>loyal</em> to her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Famine answered immediately. Even from within my cell, I could sense her sincerity. “You have not seen what Boss has sacrificed for us, and how aware she is of our current situation. You do not see her as she is - or perhaps you do, but you only see what she intends you to see. Even I do not know all the layers within her, and I’m certain that she herself does not know who she is anymore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So she works for the Wards because she has no other choice, or is it that she has no other idea of where she </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> go?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Both. Or perhaps she is simply biding her time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And if she were to turn on the Wards, would you all follow her out of loyalty, because she’s your friend and you agree with her, or would you turn on her because your duty is still to the Wards? Would you all agree or would some of you choose different paths? Because from all that </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’ve</span>
  </em>
  <span> heard, you all have your differences, but in the end you’re family. Family is complicated. Family can turn on each other, have complicated ways of showing affection and hatred in equal amounts, but in the end, family sticks together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine stared at me. For a moment, her face dropped into a mass of confusion and interest. Then, she recomposed herself again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the eyebrows, the mouth, and the way her cheeks affected the shape of her eyes. Without my ability to feel emotions, I was paying attention to the subtle details of the face - particularly Famine’s, since she was my most frequent visitor and the only one who stayed to talk. Famine’s facial expressions were more subtle than most people’s, but I’d had a lot of time to observe her during our little talks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you like to become a part of it?” she asked abruptly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help my surprised expression. I tried to maintain an air of indifference as best I could when it came to Famine - she was neither my friend nor (I hoped) my enemy. Keeping myself in that gray area was important to keeping her respect - I could neither come off as too comfortable nor too afraid. But this was genuinely unexpected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” I blurted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Wards forbid friendship even when they praise teamwork and proper cooperation. We have obviously chosen to neglect this rule - and we can only assume they knew what would happen. It’s always best to believe they’re many steps ahead of us and expect even the vaguest of scenarios. Us forming a familial unit of some kind was an inevitable conclusion of the creation of this team, which is why they put Boss in charge: she is the one they need to control and the one who will use us all. As you’ve no doubt learned, there are different levels of love and enigmatic care throughout the team, but above all, we </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> make the choice to respect and follow Boss of our own volition. If you will do the same, you can become a part of our team - our family. And if you do so, you may have a chance at convincing Boss that we should help your friends and your camps.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” I couldn’t help asking. “Why would you want to help me? Just to get me on your side - me and my powers, </span>
  <em>
    <span>supposed</span>
  </em>
  <span> powers, on your side?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That may be a contributing factor, perhaps. You would be a powerful contribution to our team, Emily Hezesto. You are an anomaly, as we all are here. We were hoping to recruit Death and Ventus as well - the ones you call ‘Azrael’ and ‘Kaze.’ We are built of the strongest demigods born of unique ways our powers can be pushed to their limits.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re an army. You’re built for war and destruction. I don’t…I’m not a part of that. I fight with my friends to protect them, to protect the camps, to protect humans and regular people - to protect the </span>
  <em>
    <span>world</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I’m invincible; I’m a shield, not a sword. I fight battles from within, hide and outsmart rather than fight. And I’m the Hearth…I just want to be a safe haven and a home for others to return to when the fighting is over.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine’s eyes shimmered. With pity? With interest? “I once ruled an empire, Emily Hezesto. I had friends, family, and those who taught me that being what am I is not a curse. I lost all those people to the Wards. I lost </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> people, those who I had sworn to protect. I had forgotten what it was like to feel for fallen comrades - until you healed me. I suppose…I suppose your camps remind me of the nation I had fostered; your dream for a home reminds me of the sanctuary that I wished to provide.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sanctuary…” I leaned forward to the bars of my cell. “What are you saying?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I want you to keep healing me, Emily Hezesto. I want you to help me keep my family together, to help Boss. In return, I will help you convince them to save your family and your camps and your world. Because of you, I now remember the flicker of what it meant to care about what happens to this world - to care what happens to nations that are meant to be sanctuaries. I do not want to see your people destroyed. And I do not want any of my family to perish, not again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nike’s warning…” I remembered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Someone will die from each and every one of your teams. From the Seven, from the Five, from the Thirteen. There is no avoiding death, no matter the power of your people. The Usurper will betray, as the Usurper before them did, and the one before him.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone will die-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“From each of our teams - our families,” Famine agreed. “Quake and some of the others went to spy on the giants in Athens and reported something about a ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Betrayer</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ I know many languages; ‘Usurper’ and ‘Betrayer’ are close enough for me to become suspicious.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If the gods call them the ‘Usurper’ and the giants call them the ‘Betrayer,’ it would make sense,” I admitted. “And neither side indicated a gender, probably suggesting that they’re gender-neutral to some extent. But the Usurper </span>
  <em>
    <span>before</span>
  </em>
  <span> this one was a male.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Zeus was the last Usurper, I would guess. He overthrew his father Kronos, and Kronos-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-usurped the throne from Ouranos. Meaning that the next Usurper would be the one to take Zeus’s throne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine frowned. “There are many legends and myths of those who would destroy the gods, but back from my time, Zeus’s child was destined to overthrow him - as Kronos’s son and children were doomed to take the place of the Titans.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve heard of that before. Zeus had to purposefully not sleep with someone to prevent a dangerous kid and/or one who would overthrow him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“More than that. Zeus had a first wife before Hera - a woman called Metis who assisted him in causing Kronos to throw up the other Olympians from his stomach. He learned that Metis was destined to bear the child that would one day take his throne.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And not learning lessons from his father, he ate Metis and her unborn children. Not in a cannibalistic way - more like he absorbed her essence and wisdom into himself or something. But his daughter had already begun growing - and still did so even inside his head. Hephaestus had to help crack open Zeus’s head and Athena popped out. Right.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But she was destined to have a brother eventually born after her - a son that would overthrow Zeus as king of the gods. Quake’s reconnaissance stated that the Betrayer was working with the Titan King and Typhon to prepare for their next move. Typhon was strong enough to scare the Olympians before - even beating Zeus in one instance, if not killing him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wasn’t Typhon a part of the war before this one, the second Titan War?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “The gods would have been destroyed if their demigod children had not convinced them to work together. Typhon is also said to overthrow Zeus. This Usurper, Typhon, and Kronos all working together…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does you Boss know about this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We must assume so. But now it is imperative that we prepare. You are capable of moving and containing the power of the gods within human hosts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think I can do that with Kronos and Typhon…? Even this Betrayer…” I sighed. “It’s a good plan in theory, but I still don’t know how to even </span>
  <em>
    <span>start</span>
  </em>
  <span> doing any of that. We’ve got, what? Less than a week before August first; I’ve got no time to do any training.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Less than a week is more than enough time if you’re trained by the Wards. A day to learn to activate your powers, another to test activation requirements, the rest to practice and strengthen. Although you might break under the Wards’ methods with your…delicate disposition. But I do believe you are a strong one, both physically and mentally, Emily Hezesto. I believe you will easily earn your place on this team.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sucked in a deep breath. I didn’t want to join a team of warriors like this, people who had lost most, if not all, sense of morality and who had pain and chaos etched into their very bones. It didn’t take my power to have understood how manic these people were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But based on all of Famine’s stories…well, they </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> a family. Underneath it all, they were still part human in their own ways. Sure, Famine could be putting on a very good façade; I can’t read her mind right now, nor her intentions or emotions, and even if I </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Famine was so complex yet in control of her emotions that I </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> doubted I’d be able to hold any advantage to be able to read her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But looking at her now, I did believe she wanted to prevent anyone in her family from getting killed. To these people, who seemed so immortal and invincible, death must vary from being no threat at all to the worst thing they could imagine. Normally death did not threaten them, and so to face the real possibility that one or more of them would </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> perish…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I thought about the crew of the Argo II.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The Seven</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
  <em>
    <span>The Five</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
  <em>
    <span>The Thirteen</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss’s team was clearly the Thirteen; the Seven of the Prophecy were obvious as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That left Rei’s team as the Five - but she had only chosen four of us: Rei herself, Veon, Audrey, and me. Rei, Veon, and Audrey all were related to the Big Three in some way, and I was the outlier in more ways than one. I guess you could count Kaze; maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>Rei</span>
  </em>
  <span> hadn’t intended for Kaze to be a part of the team, but perhaps her Primordial had. Kaze, whose death was filled with complications and whose life was filled with even more. And then there was Azrael. An outlier, a Reaper who is both dead and alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze, Azrael, and Veon were all obviously related to the line between life and death at that point. Rei had complications with death considering her mother’s power and the fact that her death only led to Ane and her Remnants before life was forced upon her again - Rei herself was incapable of dying at the moment. And then there was Audrey. Audrey who had been killed by Veon during his trials that one time - the same way Kaze had been killed during Rei’s trials. Audrey who, like Kaze, had been brought back afterwards. She’d hosted some of the dead afterwards, including some of Rei’s Remnants. She had faced down the armies of Tartarus and nearly got consumed by Tartarus himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All of them were connected to life, death, and what was in between.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What if I wasn’t a part of the Five at all? I wasn’t part of the Seven, I was being offered a place at least to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>trained</span>
  </em>
  <span> by the Thirteen. But I didn’t belong in any one category specifically. I wasn’t bound by their fates.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And I had the power to help them all. To be the Hearth to help them all find their way home.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” I finally said. “I won’t join your team. But I’ll help you. I’ll help the Thirteen, the Seven, </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Five. I’ll help the Greeks </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Romans.” I thought of the story of Bob and Damasen. “I’ll help heroes and monsters alike, I’ll help friend and foe - I’ll support whoever I must to stop the conflict. To fight that which threatens the peace.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There will always be a threat to peace, Emily Hezesto.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And there will always be those who fight to protect it. We were down there with the makhai, you remember? War and fighting have consequences. War and Love were attracted to each other; Fear and Panic were born of their union. No one can go to battle without having something they wish to fight for, something that they love. I will fight this battle for the sake of those who are striving to save their homes and families.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even Octavian? The Roman who has done such atrocious deeds claiming it is in the name of Rome?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I snorted. “He may claim to fight for his homeland, but all he cares about is power and destruction. What he cares about is his ability to crush opposition and to rule by force. Even for a Roman, he’s just a mad king. There have been many in the past; there are good leaders, and then there are bloodthirsty madmen who hurt their </span>
  <em>
    <span>own</span>
  </em>
  <span> people rather than fight for them. All they care about is themselves - their wealth, their power, their ego.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like the terrible emperors of old,” Famine agreed. “But wealth and manpower can only get you so far. In the end, they are only men - men that can bleed, and what can bleed can be killed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won’t be a killer,” I declared. “I won’t kill whoever doesn’t suit my needs - I won’t become </span>
  <em>
    <span>like</span>
  </em>
  <span> them. My powers allow me to solve things peacefully, but I can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>force</span>
  </em>
  <span> people or things to be perfect! I mean…I could certainly </span>
  <em>
    <span>try</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but manipulating emotions and personalties like that, trying to reprogram people ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>correctly</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ never works. There’s a reason that even the gods can’t just control all mortals to act the way they want and make everything perfect.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine gave a wry smile. “Well according to legends, that’s because of Pandora.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know what I mean. Besides, even </span>
  <em>
    <span>before</span>
  </em>
  <span> Pandora, mortal men weren’t just puppets of the gods. They had less chance of fallacies, but mortals still have so much choice and potential, and…and I can’t just flip switches in people haphazardly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then </span>
  <em>
    <span>learn</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Famine hissed. “Learn to manipulate your powers properly and use them how they were intended to be used.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And how were they </span>
  <em>
    <span>intended</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be used?! Huh?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am part god, Emily Hezesto. I am told by gods and monsters alike that I should live my life </span>
  <em>
    <span>as</span>
  </em>
  <span> a god, but I chose to be a mortal. I rejected the offers to ascend to Olympus because that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> what I wanted with my life. I chose, instead, to use my power to protect demigod children from all walks of life, races, and even religions. I desired to protect them from monsters as well as the gods. And I’m not the only one. Your power, whatever it was intended to be, does not have to define you. Trust in yourself that you know what to do with it; and trust in your allies and friends and family to guide you if you believe you are going astray.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> guide me? Stop me if I’m going astray?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She raised an eyebrow. Even her eyebrows were a pale white against her dark, chocolate skin. “Is that your way of asking me to be your friend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess it is.” I chuckled, despite myself. “And is ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>you offering to teach me and trying to flatter me by saying I’d survive the Wards’ tough methods</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ your way of asking </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> friend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She snorted, releasing a breathy laugh. “I suppose so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t mind that,” I admitted. “You’re good company, when you’re not all threatening and stuff. Even when you </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span>, you’re not so bad, really.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled dryly. “Not many have the privilege of saying I am ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Not so bad</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I grinned at her, before my face fell. “You’re part god, Famine. In the beginning, even now, do you ever wonder if your actions have greater weight than normal mortals? Does having the power of the gods - something you were just…</span>
  <em>
    <span>born</span>
  </em>
  <span> with, that you didn’t choose…does it ever get scary to think that you’re so powerful that you could wreck everything, be as bad as the horrible people you might abhor?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She tilted her head, her living hair shifting curiously, like rippling water in a pond. “The power of too much choice as a burden?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “My friend got cursed by such a power. Her worst punishment was knowing that she could </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> something whenever something bad happens, that she was unrestricted by fate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even the gods fear a lack of guidance. Taking the power of Apollo’s Oracle - and any other Oracle that may help guide the gods through this war - was essential to the giants’ and Gaea’s plans.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was given the power to…well, to basically control every aspect of a person’s personality. Even if I used it to eliminate the worst parts of a person, that imbalance…it’s dangerous. I’m only human; I’m as fallible as anyone else. And to not only be able to manipulate mortals, but things as strong as the Primordials themselves…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re scared of yourself.” Famine’s expression was relaxed, even sympathetic. “You fear what a mortal having the power of the gods may yet yield.”</span>
</p><p><span>“There are tons of stories of hubris involving mortals trying to gain immortality or strength to fight gods and demons, believing that their perception of good and evil and justice is the right one. I mean, sure, it seems easy to recognize a scum who abuses people or takes advantage of people or who kills people - or all of the above.</span> But how do you properly <em>punish</em> something like that? If someone truly horrible grows a conscience, the guilt can end up actually <em>breaking</em> them! Such an imbalance could literally make them suicidal - or at the very least, so mentally broken and unstable that they can be put into some kind of mental hell.<span>”</span></p><p>
  <span>“If they are truly malicious, I would not protest to such a fate.” Famine paused, her brow creasing in thought. “Though I admit, if one is unaware of their punishment, it can indeed be unsatisfying. If they do not suffer the same equivalent feeling of pain and loss, <em>I</em> would not be satisfied, at least.”</span>
</p><p><span>I shook my head and sighed. “</span>Mortality gets complicated when you look too deeply into the nuances. What if someone’s just scared? What if they have something to protect? What if someone else raised them that way, that they just…don’t know any different?”</p><p>
  <span>I realized half way through that I had just described what Famine had said her team was made of: people who simply didn’t believe there was anything different in their future beyond this servitude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is it right to judge a person when they have suffered the malevolence of another? Or what if it was just crappy luck and terrible circumstances that pushed them over the edge? Do I have to become ruthless and ignore such things, judging morality as right or wrong. Must I say, ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Regardless of that, it doesn’t change the fact that you did X,Y, and Z; maybe you shouldn’t have done these terrible things if you wanted my mercy</span>
  </em>
  <span>’? Should I wish them to have continued suffering whatever terrible circumstances pushed them over the edge until they </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span>, rather than committed terrible crimes upon others instead? It’s just all too much to think about at times…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine was silent for a few beats. “Emily Hezesto, why do you see camaraderie in my teammates?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I met her stony gaze. “Huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We are terrible people, who have committed terrible crimes. We possess the power to fight, torment, and kill gods and mortals alike, and we make people suffer. So why do you still see through that and recognize we are a family?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…isn’t it obvious? Even terrible people have things they care for. Like the makhai represented, you can’t go to war without caring about something - even if what you care about is just some greedy reason like power, fame, wealth, etc. But…caring for other people is different. Caring for other people means that you understand what it means to value lives that are not your own, that you recognize suffering and want to prevent it not for yourself but for another. It means that you can feel pain that’s not your own, pain from </span>
  <em>
    <span>another’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> pain. Such sympathy is what draws the line between my definition of ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>evil</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ By my definition, you have a family, and regardless of what that family does, I believe you can be a force for good, that you can be redeemed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There is something my former mentor taught me: ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>It is okay to have desires; it depends on how you use them</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ That applies to many things. It is okay to have power; it just depends on how you use it. It is okay to have opinions; it depends on how you use them. If a bystander is only able to watch as abuse happens before their very eyes, what makes the difference? Would you support someone who calls themselves ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>scum of the earth</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ for remaining silent to save their own skin, or would you say the one who simply revels in their safety regardless of what they see before them possibly redeemable?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Real scum would never call themselves ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>scum of the earth</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ - at least, they would never say it in earnest. People who call themselves evil, regardless of whether they’re scolding themselves or bragging about it, are at least honest with themselves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine’s lips tugged into a slight smirk, as if she’d gotten what she wanted. “You are honest with yourself, Emily Hezesto. You may not have used the precise wording, but you believe yourself ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>scum</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ - you believe your power means you are overstepping your bounds as a mortal. You are an honest woman, you understand the weight of your burden. Is that not enough to believe you are redeemable? You will commit crimes, perhaps, though I don’t believe they will ever be in earnest. So long as you remain your own worst critic, you will be held in check. You should not fear using your power so long as you know you are not above judgment - your own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that what you do? You believe you are enough to judge yourself?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “That, and I know I am far from all-powerful. My mentor, for example, is stronger than I. When it comes to fighting the gods, I know that I would not be a match for all of them. That is why my team was built: even the Wards know that not a single one of us can fight the gods alone.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is your mentor more powerful than me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smirked. “Oh, I would enjoy seeing you clash with her. In terms of raw power, yes. In terms of magical and emotional manipulation? It’s up in the air. Maybe you will meet her one day. If you indeed disrupt the balance, you will meet her resistance, no doubt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who is she? She’s obviously as old as you…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine laughed. “Oh no, she’s not. She’s a few centuries younger than me, in fact. But she has taken it upon herself to decide what is right and wrong in this world. She is rigid and flexible, human and very much not so. Her creation is complicated, as it is for many of us. It’s a dangerous and impossibly grand task to bear the weight of judgment, but she formed a governing body that keeps control of the supernatural realm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is she in this battle then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe we’ll meet her again, maybe we won’t. I haven’t seen her in a long time; you would think that immortals would meet each other in a world this small. Does she believe all will work out? Or does she not even know what’s happening? I can never tell how powerful and wise she is, for she-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“-appears so human?” I guessed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. Her smile was filled with that ancient kind of fondness, with so much more wisdom behind her eyes than could be possibly portrayed on the surface. “She is part human, she is fallible as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But she chose to make a…supernatural government? She chose to dictate what was right and wrong…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arrogant, some may call her. But she indeed tried to take into account the feelings and benefits of others. She took the opinions of every supernatural she could into account, and she has multiple branches, divisions, and methods of hearing pleas so that the rules can be revised through debate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Politics? Oh, she must be a </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> badass to be able to handle politics.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine laughed. Her ethereal air weakened when she laughed, but her laugh was indeed very beautiful. It reminded me she was human, even if she was supposedly a god of some kind. “Yes. Imagine the politics within America, but on a global scale and with supernaturals to take into account.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Supernaturals, like…not just Greek mythology, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. “Every religion, every belief system. She’s the only reason that the many religions, monster breeds, deities, etc. haven’t torn each other apart in a vie for power. You think Greek versus Romans are bad? Imagine Olympians versus the Norse gods, Hinduism versus Christianity, Navajo versus Japanese - where all believe only </span>
  <em>
    <span>their</span>
  </em>
  <span> system is allowed to reign supreme.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Must be a lot to handle, bringing all those really different cultures together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Indeed. Another reason I look up to her. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’ There will always be more to learn, good days and bad days, evolving beliefs and standards of morality.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And did she teach you how to handle such a burden - such power - knowing you can and will make mistakes?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. “She did. Once. Before I lost my memories.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I’ll help you regain them. If you’ll teach me as well, how to handle the fear and burden of power.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can do that, so long as you truly dedicate yourself to ascending to the heights of your power that I know you are capable of. To save your people, and to save mine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well then. I suppose we have a deal.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I held my hand through the bars of my prison. Famine’s gaze fell to my palm, as though she had nearly forgotten what a handshake was. But then she reached out, her dark skin contrasting against my pale skin, and clasped my hand in her own. Her hand was cold, even as it pulsed with life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have a deal,” she agreed.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Introductions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Okay so like<br/>I've had the next two chapters at least ready for a while, and the third chapter I was at a standstill because it was getting too long so eventually I cut it into a fourth chapter but that meant that the third chapter was too short so I had to add to that chapter so then I eventually finally finished the fourth chapter and here we are.</p><p>What? A normal updating schedule you say? Posting a chapter as soon as you finish it instead of backlogging like three to four that I post all at once every like three months you say? Preposterous! Foolish! A scenario too rational to become reality!</p><p>Seriously though the reason this happens is that I end up getting epiphanies and inspiration and writing way too much down and so then I don't want to go backwards and edit a chapter when I realize that the chapter I'm on has gotten too long and I need to move on to the next. Or, on the contrary, I don't think that the info that managed to become a whole chapter will be satisfying to read, so I wait until I can add a more juicy chapter alongside it. And then I move further forward because I like to write new stuff, not edit old stuff, and yet I refuse to post chapters without at least glancing over them again for errors. I have, like, writing inertia - this object in motion wants to stay in motion, because once I'm stuck at rest I'ma stay at rest until finally some outside force smacks me into inspiration again at random.</p><p>I sawwy to the like 5 people who might actually follow me on a consistent basis and look forward to what I write. For now, uh, enjoy four chapters of me rambling! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm, he pushed himself pretty far.” The punk girl walked over, looking down at Nico. His entire body was completely transparent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is he fading?!” Reyna rushed over and tried to touch Nico, but her hands passed right through. She recoiled with a jolt. “We have to save him. There must be a way. Ane!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sat down and reached out trying to touch Nico. She felt the cold disturbance of her hands passing through his body and tried sending energy into him to solidify him. He flickered for a few moments, but Ane couldn’t sustain the energy flow. Nico flickered back to completely transparent.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong?” Reyna snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t…” Ane sucked in a few deep breaths. She realized she was sweating. “Not enough power. Too weak. And Nico’s overloaded his…Underworld-y powers. Death energy…it can’t bring him back. All I can do is keep him here for a little longer. I can’t heal him…even when I recover my energy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Meaning we can’t move him,” Hedge grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get the supplies!” Reyna ordered. “Nectar, ambrosia, unicorn draught. Anything!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If he’s not solid, we might not even be able to </span>
  <em>
    <span>feed</span>
  </em>
  <span> those to him,” Ane pointed out. “I’ll try my best to make sure that he doesn’t die, but my energy won’t be able to heal him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If death energy can’t help, then I can try my hand at some good old satyr cures! Don’t worry! I’ve got just the thing!” Hedge rushed away, trying to search for some natural ingredients.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be able to keep him here - he’s not dead,” Ane assured Reyna. “When I recover some energy of my own, I’ll be able to solidify him for longer so maybe whatever Hedge is planning will work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How long?” Reyna demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know. It depends on Nico’s strength as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The punk goth girl plopped down beside them. “He’ll live,” she said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna’s eyes narrowed. “And who are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m called Pain. Sandy’s been going nuts looking after Ane, but more importantly, Boss sent me here…for some reason. Usually I at least get a </span>
  <em>
    <span>bit</span>
  </em>
  <span> of the action. Bryce was right up my alley, too. Orcus? Ugh, love that guy. I’m a kid of Nemesis, so I do enjoy people getting what’s coming to them, and kicking Orcus and his people for their crimes is always </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> satisfying…” she hissed. “Not to mention I’ve got a bit of Fury powers. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>love</span>
  </em>
  <span> some good retribution.” She frowned. “But Boss never sends us places without a reason. She even predicted us going to fight that stupid giant hunter a couple days ago when Sandy came screaming that we needed to help Ane.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You fought Orion?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shrugged. “Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you meet Hylla? The queen of the Amazons,” Reyna elaborated. “Was she okay?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain reeled, flinching from Reyna’s outburst. “Yeah, that girl was kicking ass before we got there. The Hunters were setting the guy on fire. We got them to retreat before we beat that giant’s ass. Hylla’s fine. But you should worry about when Orion reemerges.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They weren’t able to finish him off?” Reyna frowned. “Of course not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>We</span>
  </em>
  <span> finished him off,” Pain snapped. “But Boss says he’ll be back, and when she says something, we believe her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does she have some prophetic power?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain nodded. “Scarily so. But the point is, I may have been sent here alone, but I was still sent here for a reason. It’s not like Boss ordered me to take you out or make your lives harder, so-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do!” Ane’s poodle snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna held up her sword, her eyes darting around. “A threat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane held up her bow from Kaze. “Something fast. I can’t-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kid!” Pain dived and tackled Ane, wrapping her body around the smaller girl just as Pain was struck from behind by an arrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The arrow flashed and disappeared once it had pierced Pain, vanishing without a trace. Pain rose quickly, looking around as frantically as Reyna.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t hear a grunt,” she muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Ane snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I sent the arrow back to whoever shot it; they should’ve gotten skewered by it! At the very least, we should’ve heard them being hit, a grunt of pain or a noise of surprise. I don’t have Quake’s hearing, but-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She cut herself off, shoving Reyna out of the way as she was struck dead at the base of her neck, a shot that definitely should’ve been fatal. But the arrow once again disappeared and Pain was left without a scratch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Orion?” Reyna inquired.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. He shouldn’t be back yet! Besides, Boss wouldn’t make me save your sorry asses from him </span>
  <em>
    <span>alone</span>
  </em>
  <span>…” She glanced down at Nico. “Can’t move him, therefore can’t move the rest of your party. I’m supposed to be able to make a stand here and now. Ugh, I hate it when Boss sends me in alone without instructions!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do,” Ane’s familiar said to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane nodded. “Right. We’re going ahead!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dashed away despite Reyna and Pain protesting. Ane may be small, but she was still fast enough to easily outpace them. She sprinted down the road back towards the Buford Zippy Mart, though she had no intention of actually making it there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on! I know you’re tracking me, so get on with it!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She held up her bow just in time to be met with a red longbow far taller than she was. Behind it was an unfamiliar yet staggeringly familiar face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She’d learned about the Reanimations from Rei, about how Gaea had taken both her father and Kaze’s mother and transformed them into…these things. The murky aura of death was nauseating, even for Ane, who had been born in Tartarus and remained there for centuries. His porcelain-like face filled with small cracks gave him a very inhuman gaze - along with his black sclera accentuating deep blue eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was far taller than her now, and even with some of her most recent Remnants, he still towered over her. But it was better than nothing. She summoned some of her oldest and more recent Remnants, growing up to be a teenager sparking with the electricity of pure lightning bolts. She channeled the lightning through her bow and down her father’s to zap him with as much electricity as she could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t react with pain, but the electricity did manage to create a powerful discharge in the air, blowing up between them and shoving both of them back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa…?” Ane called a little more forcefully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He charged back in with incredible speed, smacking Ane with his bow hard enough to throw her back despite her being fast enough to at least raise her own weapon to block. Thankfully, Kaze appeared to have built the weapon to be strong enough to handle the Reanimation’s attacks - probably because Kaze himself was a Reanimation. Ane barely managed to stay on her feet, trying to adjust to her new height. Though it wasn’t unfamiliar - her big sister’s Remnants being </span>
  <em>
    <span>part</span>
  </em>
  <span> of her - Ane in terms of being No. 1 was used to being a small four-year-old.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her father charged in again, and this time, Ane planted her feet behind her and clashed with him, straining all her Remnants into matching his strength. “Papa, why won’t you </span>
  <em>
    <span>speak</span>
  </em>
  <span> to me?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane felt her strength waning. She was already burnt out from fighting and banishing Bryce, and she found ever more reasons to resent the fact that being in the Overworld meant her power drained faster and she couldn’t sustain the kind of power she was able to back in Tartarus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was thrown back, her feet getting tangled as she tried to catch herself, and she barely had enough time to block another strike from her father before she was struck like a baseball and launched away in an arc that might’ve been called a home run. She hit the dirt, sliding through the ground as her body was burnt away back to her original form in order to keep her from sustaining injury. While she didn’t have a scratch on her, she was out of energy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She raised her bow with both hands just in time as her father came down on her with a downwards swing, both his position above her and his significant strength pushing her bow down against her trembling arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa…! Papa, it’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>me!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Please…</span>
  <em>
    <span>Papa!</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Ane could barely speak - if she needed to breathe, technically she might not have been able to manage what she did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her body was going to give out. She was going to return to Tartarus. A part of her wondered if she’d done enough. She wondered if she’d seen enough of this world to be satisfied being trapped down there for another few centuries - or maybe just forever. She wondered if she was okay leaving the fate of this war to the others without being there to help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she definitely knew the answer was no.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She wanted to see more of this world with Nico, she wanted to see the camps and the world that her big sister and all her friends were trying so hard to save, she wanted to prove that she could beat this Reanimation - she was strong enough to do this, dammit! She wasn’t going to lose against her father.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She didn’t want to go back. She didn’t want to die.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was everything that her big sister left behind, the one who suffered the consequences of dying so that Rei didn’t have to. She gave everything to her big sister - the </span>
  <em>
    <span>true</span>
  </em>
  <span> Rei - including her name, her life, her deaths, her fate, her future. Ane was a mistake, the leftovers left behind whenever Rei was supposed to die, the punishment that came from cheating death so many times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Ane was going to become her own person now. She was going to make a place for herself in this world - starting with proving that she could be useful to this quest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa, I miss you so much…!” She sucked in a deep breath and summoned the power of her Curse, pushing through her feelings of desperation and determination. Ane was a monster, but she was made from a human - she </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a human! She was her own person now! “But I want to live! I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>going</span>
  </em>
  <span> to live! I’m going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>win!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She leaked the glowing green fires of Curse and pushed the flames down her bow and onto her father’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes dilated just slightly, and maybe it was her imagination, but she saw a flicker of…realization. Awareness?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa? Papa, can you hear me?” She grit her teeth and pushed her bow forward - and Kandai was pushed back, his force weakening. “Papa!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He flinched. He was no longer pushing down against her, just holding his position. His mouth opened, as though he was trying to speak, but he wasn’t capable. As if he’d entirely forgotten </span>
  <em>
    <span>how</span>
  </em>
  <span> to speak. Or because he was afraid to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Please, I need you right now! If you’re in there, I need your help!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rei…” His voice was strained, as though he was resisting speaking - resisting coming back to his senses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Come on, just a little more. Free him!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sucked in a deep breath and then threw her Curse fire at her father. He recoiled, the Curse fires absorbing into his skin. His glowing molten coat flickered in patches like cooling lava. He was thrown off of Ane, stumbling and clutching his head screaming.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Papa…Papa come back to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared down at her for a moment, his eyes slowly focusing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he turned and ran.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He ran faster than Ane could keep up with. That was probably because she was blacking out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t wanna go.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane’s eyes fell closed and she drifted away into the void.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Emily</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…uh…nice to meet you all?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Over a dozen pairs of eyes rested on me from all directions with varying levels of interest. All of them felt discouraging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> pretty,” the one called Lust muttered. “In a nerdy kinda way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…thanks?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm…it wasn’t a compliment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, well…still thanks?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lust shook her head. “I’m out.” She turned and retreated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she left, she passed by Hatter and slapped a few coins into his palm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will she be working with me?” Forge asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Boss said flatly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I’m out too.” He turned and left along with Lust.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pardon their rudeness.” A girl stepped up and held her hand out to me. “I’m Iota. LK-11. Nice to meet you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I instinctively reached out my hand to clasp hers. A moment too late, I realized the odd feeling that I was getting from her. Though no harm was done, I felt a strong electric current surge through me, as if I’d touched one of those electric generators used in a physics class (one time our entire class clasped hands while standing on chairs before the guy at the end of the chain touched the metal doorframe - all of us were zapped, but the poor boy who’d touched the metal was shocked the hardest).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice to meet you,” I muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, it felt like my body was on pause. My powers couldn’t touch anything from Iota, even though I’d been able to sense something from her before. And it wasn’t just her. I couldn’t feel </span>
  <em>
    <span>anyone</span>
  </em>
  <span> anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before I could panic, she released my hand and everything returned to normal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, you’re gonna be working with us, right?” Iota smiled warmly. “It’s a pleasure. I hope we get along. You’re nothing like Lust.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For better or worse,” War grumbled. “But aren’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> closer to her than Lust?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, not really. I’m just…no, I’m not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> good.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>War snorted and flipped her bangs aside. “Whatever. I’ma go join Forge. But at least you’re not annoying, newbie. Can’t wait to see if you’ve got some skill on the battlefield.” She grinned as she passed by and followed after Forge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nice to meet you.” Another girl walked up and thrust her hand out. “Seven. LK-7, fittingly enough. If Famine trusts you, then I don’t see an issue. Just don’t pry into my head, will you? I get enough of that from the others.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won’t,” I promised. “‘I’ll try, at least. I still can read people…normally, you know? Same way you get a </span>
  <em>
    <span>feeling</span>
  </em>
  <span> from someone just based on their mood.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d be fine letting you into my head,” Mirage grinned. Their odd black and white color palette was slightly hard to stare at, but it got easier if you just didn’t focus too hard on the details. “I wonder what you’ll find, little kitten.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?” I tilted my head. Mirage did indeed have a very…disrupted aura. It was like they were </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but not…there. They took up space, they were a living presence, but just like with their outer appearance, if I looked too hard, they started to become hard to…sense. They were just a void, a bundle of magic converging into a vague shape that resembled a human. “Well…I’d like to get to know you too, Mirage.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I look forward to it. Unfortunately, I have business to attend to. There are few days left to prepare. I wonder if we’ll get the chance to truly get to know each other before this war ends. Let us place our bets now, for even Seven may not be able to tell.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey!” Seven protested. “Are you doubting my ability?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mirage giggled in a creepy yet soothing tone. “No, no, darling. But no one can truly control all fate and still resemble a human with a soul. How long will it be, I wonder, before each of you ascend to heights beyond what you are now? Will you all survive with your humanity intact?”  Mirage’s unnerving eyes gazed down at me. “You may be an important key to such a thing, dear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that, Mirage stepped back and faded like a…well, a Mirage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t mind Mirage,” Iota insisted. “They’re just a bit…weird. But that’s what makes them so charming. They’re really not that bad if you get used to them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I nodded. “Right. I get more…enigmatic intimidation than real malice. Though I can sense they can be pretty scary if they need to be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’re a lot of things. But if Mirage takes an interest in you, then that should be good. I think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just don’t get on their shit radar,” Hatter said. He grimaced. “You know how when you pull a prank on someone you can end up starting a prank war and are stuck constantly on edge about getting mostly harmless pranks disrupting your everyday life?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…no?” I shook my head. “I’ve never had a prank war before…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Lucky you. Anyway, I’m Hatter. I like snakes, booze, annoying people, and ramming into things - not necessarily in that order.” He held out his hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cool.” I clasped my hand in his and a small snake slipped down out of his jacket, flicking its tongue and tickling my wrist before retreating up his arm once more. “Oh, and don’t give up on Pestilence,” I whispered. “Just don’t try and force things and be yourself around her and you’ll easily win her over. In fact, you’re already closer than you think.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hatter’s eyes widened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, what was that about me?!” Pestilence called.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You and Hatter are…friends, right?” I said at normal volume.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pestilence rolled her eyes. “‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Friends</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ is…a word, yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you mean we’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span> than friends?!” Hatter exclaimed. He dashed over to her and threw his arm over her shoulder. “Is this a confession?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“NO! Get off, you stupid goat!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pain shook her head. “Ignore them. Nice to see you’re choosing the cool kids.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not choosing sides,” I protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatever lets you sleep at night, kiddo. But what convinced y’all to let her join? You included, Hezesto.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She will be useful,” Boss said flatly. Her voice rarely expressed any shift in tonations, I’d noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I volunteered her,” Famine admitted. “She’s very powerful, can you not sense it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, so she’s your new pet project then?” Hatter said. “Gotta admit, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> a curious one, eh? If dear old Fam has taken an interest in you, you’d better watch out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“At least she’s invincible,” Pestilence shrugged. “Anyway, they call me Tilly around here for some reason. I’d rather have it from you than Hatter, so go ahead and call me that if you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had a feeling that Pestilence actually did like the name Tilly, though she’d never admit to liking a nickname that Hatter gave her. A lot of Pestilence was at odds, her pride and her annoyance with Hatter clashing with knowing that he was kind and genuine on the inside. She also felt pity for him - as well as the other Lab Kids who never knew what freedom was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure, she thought her life wasn’t all that exciting before she’d come to the Wards, but when she’d joined up with other LKs, she’d realized just how isolated they had been. They hardly knew of basic foods or games or sayings. Suddenly, Pestilence was having fun teaching the LKs about the real world. It felt like she had some kind of forbidden knowledge that she got to enlighten them with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Famine has taken responsibility for her,” Boss said simply, stormy eyes locking onto Famine. “You are in charge of keeping her from misbehaving. You wished for her to be trained, and so you will train her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine nodded. “Understood.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those two were so stiff around each other. It was a kind of mutual respect, but it was hard to tell which one of them had more leadership qualities. Famine was older and wiser and clearly a leader, but Boss was in charge and knew what she was doing as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hurry up with the introductions,” Boss ordered. “Quake, Pain, I have a mission for each of you. Seven, take Sandy back to his tent. I need you, him, and Iota back on reconnaissance. Pestilence, Hatter, go monitor the Roman army. Last thing we need is the monsters getting ancy and killing allies or even launching an early attack. Keep them at a stalemate. You’ll rotate shifts with War and Forge or Lust and Mirage.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes ma’am,” they all answered in concert.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boss nodded and walked away. She didn’t introduce herself, though she really didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>need</span>
  </em>
  <span> to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I really don’t have to introduce myself,” Pain said. “Hope we get along, Hezesto.” She rushed after Boss, calling for what her mission was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Pestilence sighed. “Monitoring that stupid army is such bull. Lust and Mirage have so much more fun with them.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, Tilly, don’t be such a downer,” Hatter urged. “I’ll make ‘em dance the macarena for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t rile them up, Hatter. We don’t want them getting angrier than they already are. That’s just more work for us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, sweetheart, you know me better than that. We can just have a nice party for them to relax at.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you say. But you and I have varying definitions of relaxation.” She sighed and turned my way, waving her hand. “See you later, Emily.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair continued their bickering as they departed, but it was clearly all in good fun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go on, introduce yourself,” Iota was urging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pushed a young boy forward. He had a mass of curly hair that he tried to use to hide his face with, dressed in a comfortable, fluffy kimono that looked soft and easy to fall asleep in. “Sandy…” he said lightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sandman, do not be so quiet,” Famine demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t need to be so harsh,” I chided. I held out my hand. Sandy was clearly younger than me, but he wasn’t much shorter (since I was small). “Nice to meet you, Sandy.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He seemed pleased to be called Sandy rather than Sandman and reached out to clasp my hand. His hand was cold, as though he didn’t have good circulation - or perhaps because he had a lower heart rate than normal people and therefore produced less heat energy than normal. Maybe because he was wrapped in warm clothing and blankets all the time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s more confident when he’s Astral-Projecting,” Iota said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sandy had that dazed, sleepy look that most of the Hypnos kids back at Camp Half-Blood had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I smiled as warmly as possible, releasing an aura of relaxation. “I’ll let you get back to sleep. Nice meeting you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You too,” he muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, Iota,” Seven urged. “Back to ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>reconnaissance</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’” She began guiding Sandy away, the boy basically leaning on her and sleepwalking as he went.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course.” Iota turned to Famine. “Go easy on her, okay? It’s her first day dealing with us, and you shouldn’t scare her away.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Famine frowned. “I promised to train her quickly. We have not the time to dally.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota merely shook her head. “You win more flies with honey than vinegar. Not that I’m implying you’re a fly!” She waved her hands defensively. “But a kind girl will give you more when you treat her kindly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you say.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I speak the truth! Have I ever given you any reason to doubt me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Many.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota rolled her eyes, though I could sense that the words stung more than Iota let on. She had some insecurities, I felt, about her place on the team. “Whatever. But you must admit, it’s easier to work with people who are willing. If she gives you trouble, Emily, talk to me. And that goes for Lust and War and Mirage and…well, anyone that </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> cause you trouble on this team.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even Boss?” I asked cheekily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Even her,” Iota reaffirmed. “Not that Boss causes a lot of trouble. She struggles to even crack a smile.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She can smile,” Quake protested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iota seemed startled. I couldn’t blame her. Quake hadn’t said a word this entire time. He was more of a calm and stoic kind of guy, only speaking when he needed to and otherwise taking in information through observation without affecting things himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could hardly sense anything from Quake, though it wasn’t because he was resistant to my powers or negating them or anything, but Quake was just that calm and reserved of a person. He seemed utterly focused, though perhaps that was because he was good at meditating and focusing himself. He had plenty of independent thoughts, but he kept them in the back of his mind, almost like he was afraid that thinking his own thoughts would hurt too much. In a way, that was how everyone in this team was. If they thought too hard about their situation, it might drive them mad. Well, madder than most of them already were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quake,” he said simply. His mouth moved open and closed, but for some reason it didn’t look like he’d actually spoken. It was like anime dubbing where the lip-syncing didn’t precisely match with the words. “Do not cause trouble,” he said almost robotically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned and walked away, bare feet gliding through the grass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Quake’s a good guy,” Iota assured me. “Very focused, won’t let you down in a fight. I look forward to getting to work with you! Bye!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She dashed off and then motioned as if she were going to make a large leap. The air pressure thickened and she transformed into a lightning bolt shooting up into the sky similar to how Rei could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll get some food and water in you before we get to work,” Famine announced. “I want you controlling your abilities by the end of the day, understood? We have until midnight. We don’t make it by then, you won’t be eating again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I flinched, forced to follow Famine towards a tent that appeared to be a dedicated dining hall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I could hardly make out what I should think about Famine. On the one hand, she seemed like she cared somewhere underneath that cold façade, and other times she seemed genuinely that cruel. Well, either way, this was gonna be…fun?</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Ane</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>A flock of ravens circled in a dark sky. Then the ravens turned into horses galloping through the surf.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ella the harpy, with her shaggy red hair and red feathers, eyes like dark coffee, perched on the couch of the Big House’s living room. Propped next to her was the magical stuffed leopard head Seymour. Ella rocked back and forth, feeding the leopard Cheetos.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Cheese is not good for harpies,” she muttered. Then she scrunched up her face and chanted one of her memorized lines of prophecy: “The fall of the sun, the final verse.” She fed Seymour more Cheetos. “Cheese is good for leopard heads.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Seymour roared in agreement.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ella changed into a dark-haired, extremely pregnant cloud nymph, writhing in pain in a camp bunk bed. Clarisse La Rue sat next to her, wiping the nymph’s head with a cool cloth. “Mellie, you’ll be fine,” Clarisse said, though she sounded worried.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“No, nothing is fine!” Mellie wailed. “Gaea is rising!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ane was in Tartarus, standing before Akhlys, the goddess of misery. Blood streaked her cheeks, tears streamed from her eyes and dripped on the shield of Hercules in her lap. “What more could I do to you, child? You are naught but sorrow and pain!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ane was young, first meeting the goddess as she had met so many others. “I am human…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The goddess’s laugh tore through the air. There was no humor, however, only pure agony that came when all one could do was laugh in the face of absolute hopelessness. “You will never leave this place. This is your home; the place where we monsters exist for eternity.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ane was older, she had been there for countless years. She had learned the ways of Tartarus, learned to exist as a monster. She grew more and more powerful as Rei died more and more. She wandered in the barren land of horrid life, neither friend nor enemies with each monster she passed.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I am human,” she muttered, squeezing her stuffed animal. Her eyes were blank and lifeless by that point. “I am human…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>She stood before the goddess of misery again. Akhlys took pleasure in her visits, reveling in her eternal agony.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Let me pass,” she ordered.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“And why should I do that?” the goddess crooned. “You’re my beautiful pet, living in eternal misery - born of nothing but sorrow and pain! You cannot exist as anything else!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“The Doors are open,” Ane muttered. “I will get back. I will see the world again. And you will not be the one to stop me.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane gasped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes flew open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was lying on her back, staring at the sunlight in the tree branches. It felt like she hadn’t seen the sun in an eternity, as though she had emerged from Tartarus for the first time. The sun was bright, the air was cool and fresh, the trees were beautiful and living - though the dying leaves were turning different shades, slowly but surely.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her familiar climbed onto her chest and sat down, stuffed feet spread to Ane’s shoulders while it leaned forward and tried to look at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pulled herself upright, her poodle rolling backwards so that it was in her lap instead. She ran her hands along its soft fur before picking it up and squeezing it. “I am human…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do,” it agreed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ane?” Reyna was lying nearby, but she quickly stirred from her sleep and crawled over. The bleeding cut on her face was barely visible, nearly gone entirely. “Are you okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” she said. “I think…yeah, I’m fine. How long…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A few days,” Reyna admitted. “Pain brought you back and then…she just left. But my sister and the Hunters are okay, at least. Many of them were slain during the initial ambush, but our retreat didn’t get any more of them. At least, to Pain’s knowledge. I don’t trust her, but…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hylla’s tough. So is Thalia. They’ll keep their people safe, you know that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She twisted her ring, the one that matched Hylla’s. “Yes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane straightened up. “Nico! What happened? I-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hedge has been working some magic,” Reyna explained. “He’s managed to solidify Nico a couple times, so he hasn’t completely faded on us, but…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can help. Hedge had that magic plan or whatever, didn’t he?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. But the problem is, Nico won’t stay solid long enough for it to take effect.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll solidify him, then Hedge can do his work. And there are some things I have to tell you about too. I had some dreams. If they’re anything like regular demigod dreams…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna nodded. “Understood.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Thank the gods.” Reyna leaned over Nico, her hand cool on his forehead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His eyes flew open in a gasp, scanning his surroundings. Hedge was beside Reyna, scowling. Sadly, Nico had a great view right up the coach’s nostrils.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane was across from Reyna, her hands on his body sending energy into him. “He’s out of the danger zone at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good,” said the coach. “Just a few more applications.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held up a large square bandage coated with sticky brown gunk and plastered it over Nico’s nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is…? Ugh.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The gunk smelled like potting soil, cedar chips, grape juice, and just a hint of fertilizer. Nico didn’t have the strength to remove it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His senses started to work again and he took in his situation. He was lying on a sleeping bag outside the tent. He was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts and a thousand gross, brown-plastered bandages all over his body. His arms, legs, and chest were itchy from the drying mud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are…are you trying to plant me?” he murmured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a sports medicine with a little nature magic,” the coach explained. “Kinda a hobby of mine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico tried to focus on Reyna’s face. “You approved of this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked like she was about to pass out from exhaustion, but she managed a smile. “Coach Hedge brought you back from the brink. The unicorn draught, ambrosia, nectar…we couldn’t use any of it. You were fading so badly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fading…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about that now, kid.” Hedge put a drinking straw next to Nico’s mouth. “Have some Gatorade.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I…I don’t want-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll have some Gatorade,” Ane snapped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico had some Gatorade. He was surprised at how thirsty he was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” he asked. “To Bryce…to those skeletons…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna and the coach exchanged an uneasy look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s good news and bad news,” Reyna said. “But first, eat something. You’ll need your strength back before you hear the bad news.”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Three days?” Nico exclaimed. Nico wasn’t sure he’d heard her right the first dozen times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We couldn’t move you,” Reyna said. “I mean…literally, you couldn’t be moved. You had almost no substance. Ane was passed out from defending us against one of those Reanimations, Pain left since she had no healing abilities, and if it wasn’t for Coach Hedge…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No biggie,” the coach assured him. “One time in the middle of a play-off game, I had to split a quarterback’s leg with nothing but tree branches and strapping tape.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Somehow that doesn’t reassure me of your prowess,” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite his nonchalance, the satyr had bags under his eyes. His cheeks were sunken. He looked almost as bad as Nico felt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico couldn’t believe he’d been unconscious for so long. He recounted his weird dreams - the mutterings of Ella the harpy, the glimpse of Mellie the cloud nymph (which worried the coach) - but Nico felt as if those visions had only lasted seconds. According to Reyna, it was the afternoon of July 30th. He’d been in a shadow coma for days.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t beat yourself up,” Ane said. “I’ve been passed out since yesterday evening. I overtaxed my Curse’s power, nearly got dragged back to Tartarus myself. Without Curse, I…I can’t exist in this world. Or at least…I couldn’t. Now…now I think I’ve got enough to live here on my own. For a little longer, at least.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Romans will attack Camp Half-Blood the day after tomorrow.” Nico sipped more Gatorade, which was nice and cold, but without flavor. His taste buds seemed to have phased into the shadow world permanently. “We have to hurry. I have to get ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.” Reyna pressed her hand against his forearm, making the bandages crinkle. “Any more shadow-travel would kill you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He gritted his teeth. “If it kills me, it kills me. We have to get the statue to Camp Half-Blood.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, kid,” said the coach, “I appreciate your dedication, but if you zap us all into eternal darkness along with the Athena Parthenos, it’s not going to help anybody.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right,” Ane agreed. “Even helping you myself, if we fall into the shadows again, we might not come out - especially with such a big statue and two guests. You and I are able to pull others through the shadow realm, but if we don’t make it out, neither do our charges. You’ve done enough getting us this far, but Bryce Lawrence wasn’t lying when he said that one more shadow trip will take you along with anyone you’ve escorted as well.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the mention of Bryce, Reyna’s metallic dogs pricked up their ears and snarled. Reyna stared at the cairn of rocks, her eyes full of torment, as if more unwelcome spirits might emerge from the grave.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico took a deep breath, getting a nose full of Hedge’s fragrant home remedy. “Reyna, I…I didn’t think. What I did to Bryce-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You destroyed him,” Reyna said. “You turned him into a ghost and Ane condemned him to Tartarus. And, yes, it reminded me of what happened to my father.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Nico said bitterly. “I didn’t mean to…to poison another friendship. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna studied his face. “Nico, I have to admit, the first day you were unconscious, I didn’t know what to think or feel. What you did was hard to watch…hard to process.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge chewed on a stick. “I gotta agree with the girl on this one, kid. Smashing somebody’s head in with a baseball bat, that’s one thing. But ghostifying that creep? That was some </span>
  <em>
    <span>dark</span>
  </em>
  <span> stuff.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane sighed. “I’m sorry, Nico. Such a practice should not be available to normal mortals - regardless of your parentage. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories, either. I’m used to being a monster, but you are not. I didn’t mean to make you into one, considering all you’ve been through.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico expected to feel angry - to shout at them for trying to judge him, think they knew him better than he knew himself. That’s what he normally did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But his anger wouldn’t materialize. He still felt plenty of rage towards Bryce Lawrence, and Gaea, and the giants. He wanted to find the augur Octavian and strangle him with his chain belt. But he wasn’t mad at Reyna or the coach - or even Ane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why did you bring me back?” he asked. “You knew I couldn’t help you anymore. You should’ve found another way to keep going with the statue. But you wasted three days watching over me. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge snorted. “You’re part of the team, you idiot. We’re not going to leave you behind. Besides, we were looking after Ane too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s more than that.” Reyna rested her hand on Nico’s. “While you were asleep, I did a lot of thinking. What I told you about my father…I’d never shared that with anyone. I guess I knew you were the right person to confide in. You lifted some of my burden. I trust you, Nico.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico stared at her, mystified. “How can you trust me? You both felt my anger, saw my worst feelings…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, kid,” the coach said, his tone softer. “We all get angry. Even a sweetheart like me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna smirked. She squeezed Nico’s hand. “Coach is right, Nico. You’re not the only one who lets out the darkness once in a while. I told you what happened with my dad, and you supported me. You shared your painful experiences; how can we not support you? We’re friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nico wasn’t sure what to say. They’d seen his deepest secrets. They knew who he was, what he was. But they didn’t seem to care. No…they cared more. They weren’t judging him. They were concerned. None of it made sense to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But Bryce, I…” Nico couldn’t continue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did what had to be done. I see that now,” Reyna said. “Just promise me, no more turning people into ghosts if we can avoid it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Coach said. “Unless you let me whale on them </span>
  <em>
    <span>first</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do.” Ane’s familiar tugged on her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She smiled and picked it up, squeezing it close as she sat quietly watching the exchange.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t think we’ve forgotten about you, Ane.” Reyna held her hand out and urged her over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane crawled closer and Reyna drew her into a light embrace under her free arm, the other hand still holding Nico’s.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nico wasn’t the only one to share his feelings,” she went on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me?” Ane’s eyes widened. “That’s not good. You can’t have held my burdens. I’ve got thousands of deaths within me. I’ve used the shock of them to make people’s hearts literally stop just from experiencing a few of them in succession - not even transferring the pain, just the memories of them!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It wasn’t that,” Reyna assured her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It was just fear,” Nico muttered, as though he were just recalling it himself. “Fear of losing your humanity because of what you were, how long you were down there. I know what that place does to you. I know…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane lowered her head, bangs falling across her face. “Sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’s nothing to apologize over!” Hedge exclaimed. “Look, we get it. You got some scary talent - both of you. But you’re good kids. We aren’t just abandoning you because of that. Besides, it’s not all bad news.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna nodded. “We’ve seen no sign of other Romans, so it appears Bryce didn’t notify anyone else where he was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably wanted to take all the glory for himself,” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s also no sign of Orion. Do you remember Pain?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That girl that saved us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who?” Nico asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna and Ane gave a quick rundown of Pain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was an ally,” Ane said. “Regardless, she saved us from my Papa’s Reanimation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She also brought Ane back after Ane managed to chase him off,” Hedge added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So how’s she related to Orion?” Nico asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She and her team intercepted the Hunters who were holding off Orion. According to her, there were no more deaths and they all managed to get away.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And Hylla? Thalia?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The lines tightened around Reyna’s mouth. “We’ve got no direct contact from them, but Pain says they made it out. Whether or not we can really believe her…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have to be the ones to believe they’re still alive,” Ane declared. “Have faith. They are strong, and they also know when to retreat from a fight they can’t win.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t tell them the best news yet,” the coach prompted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna frowned. “Maybe because it’s so hard to believe. Coach Hedge thinks he’s found another way to transport the statue. It’s all he’s talked about for the past three days. But so far we’ve seen no sign of-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, it’ll happen!” Coach grinned at Nico. “You remember that paper airplane I got right before Ceepmeister Lawrence showed up? It was a message from one of Mellie’s contacts in the palace of Aeolus. This harpy, Nuggets - she and Mellie go way back. Anyway, she knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a horse who knows a goat who knows another horse-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coach,” Reyna chided, “you’ll make them sorry they came out of their comas.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine,” the satyr huffed. “Long story short, I pulled in a lot of favors. I got word to the right wind-type spirits that we needed help. The letter I ate? Confirmation that the cavalry is coming. They said it would take a while to organize, but he should be here soon - any minute, in fact.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who’s ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>he?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’” Nico asked. “What cavalry?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna stood abruptly. She stared towards the north, her face slack with awe. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>That</span>
  </em>
  <span> cavalry…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ane stood and followed her gaze. At first, it looked like a flock of birds was approaching - large birds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are those…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they got closer, it became clearer that they were actually horses with wings - at least half a dozen in V formation, without riders. Flying on point was a massive stallion with a golden coat and multicolored plumage like an eagle’s, his wingspan twice as wide as the other horses’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pegasi,” Nico realized. “You summoned enough to carry the statue.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coach Hedge laughed with delight. “Not just any pegasi, kid. You’re in for a real treat.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The stallion in the front…” Ane muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Reyna shook her head in disbelief. “That’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>the</span>
  </em>
  <span> Pegasus,” she confirmed, “the immortal lord of horses.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Twins of Delos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Update Part 2 of 4<br/>Yes four! Because I write too much mindless fluff and philosophizing and also it's been like three months…</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>First Person: Kaze</p><p>Typical.</p><p>Just as Leo declared we were finished with his modifications, a big storm goddess came along and smacked the grommets right out of his ship.</p><p>After the encounter with Kymopoleia, the Argo II limped through the Aegean, too damaged to fly, too slow to outrun monsters. They fought hungry sea serpents about every hour. They attracted schools of curious fish. At one point, they got stuck on a rock and Percy and Jason had to get out and push.</p><p>It didn’t help that Audrey was attempting to teach Percy how to freeze and boil water and together they both managed to cook a giant attacking squid alive and filled the ship’s deck with the smell of cooked calamari and tentacle pieces from when the thing blew up - because yeah it blew up! Another time they froze one of the giant sea serpents while it was still wrapped around the ship, and it took both of them carefully melting certain parts (trying not to blow them up) and moving the thing a safe distance away before they boiled it to death.</p><p>“Gross,” Rei muttered.</p><p>Veon held out a plate to her filled with a giant lump of squid meat. “Calamari?” he offered.</p><p>“Ew, it’s like a blobfish was put in a microwave!” She stared down at the plate. “Get me some ketchup and let’s try it.”</p><p>“Yeet!” I tossed off the final large chunk of exploded squid.</p><p>Azrael muttered something along the lines of, ‘<em> What was that word? I don’t think you used that word correctly </em>.’</p><p>I internally sighed at how nice his German sounded. I wanted him to speak more. That was probably weird.</p><p>“Kaze?! Are you done yet?! I need your help!” Leo called.</p><p>I hurried down to assist Leo in repairs again. Even with my speed and expertise, there was only so much patching we could do without more supplies. I hadn’t stored an entire ship’s worth of wood in my pockets, after all.</p><p>Thanks to Veon’s tar, the ship actually turned out better than it <em> could </em> have after the battering it took from Kymopoleia. We were able to temporarily replace parts with the Kako’s help, but at random intervals the tar would somehow fail, melting away or changing into misshapen objects instead of what it was intended to be.</p><p>Rei assured me that Veon was just losing his concentration here and there, but that didn’t exactly reassure me that he was in his right mind - nor her, for that matter.</p><p>At the very least, the two of them had amicable conversations and seemed like a regular enough couple, though sometimes it felt like they were speaking in code, mentioning things shared between the two of them that no eavesdropper would be able to make sense of.</p><p>The wheezing sound of the engine made Leo want to cry. He had dramatically broken down on multiple occasions, loudly complaining about complex engineering terms even to the crew who had no idea what he was talking about. I think the stress of losing Emily’s emotional control was starting to grow worse and worse. Or that was just Leo.</p><p>Over the course of three long days, we finally got the ship more or less back to working order just as we made port at the island of Mykonos, which probably meant it was time for us to get bashed to pieces again.</p><p>Percy and Annabeth went ashore to scout while Leo stayed on the quarterdeck, fine-tuning the control console. I ended up teaching Kaze about how to play Trash the card game while we waited, avoiding any more repair duties. While I usually loved fixing things - and definitely had the time to do so - I was having fun taking the opportunity to do some more teaching with Azrael.</p><p>He seemed down ever since the incident with Kymopoleia, like he had lost his energy. I was trying my best to cheer him up, but even I could feel his weak energy. Was this how Emily usually felt? Or was it just because Azrael was the one helping me retain my soul and therefore I naturally felt what he was feeling?</p><p>“Gelato!” Percy called.</p><p>Instantly, the day got better. The whole crew sat on deck, without a storm or a monster attack to worry about for the first time in days, and ate ice cream. Well, except for Frank, who was lactose intolerant. He got an apple.</p><p>The day was hot and windy. The sea glittered with chop, but Leo had fixed the stabilizers well enough that Hazel didn’t look too seasick. Curving off to their starboard side was the town of Mykonos - a collection of white stucco buildings with blue roofs, blue windows, and blue doors. Percy must have been in heaven.</p><p>“We saw these pelicans walking around town,” Percy reported. “Like, just going through the shops, stopping at the bars.”</p><p>Hazel frowned. “Monsters in disguise?”</p><p>“No,” Annabeth said, laughing, “just regular old pelicans. They’re the two mascots or something. And there’s a ‘<em> Little Italy </em>’ section of town. That’s why the gelato is so good.”</p><p>“Europe is messed up.” Leo shook his head. “First we go to Rome for Spanish steps, then we go to Greece for Italian ice cream.”</p><p>“America is a hodge-podge of dozens of cultures all at once,” Rei pointed out. “You could order Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and American all within the same city.”</p><p>“Can’t argue with the gelato though,” Veon said.</p><p>Azrael was eating the gelato with curiosity, finding it almost <em> too </em> sweet for his taste buds, but he insisted on finishing his portion. No food went to waste.</p><p>I tried to imagine that we were on vacation, just relaxing with friends in a foreign country like normal humans. I’d traveled Europe with Onesan before, but we were always alone and always on guard.</p><p>I wondered where the Wards were, if they were searching for us. Those other demigods appeared to be more than enough of a challenge, but they were leaving us alone for the time being. Still…if they were going to either join us or fight us in the battle to stop Gaea from rising, in a battle against the giants, we may not stand a chance if we could convince them to side with us. Somehow, I worried that the few interactions we’d had were tests - they were studying us without voicing that they were actually testing us. That was common in the Wards.</p><p>The idea of sitting with a group of friends made me want to take Azrael to new places. I knew how oppressive the Wards could be, and I had so much to show him. It made me wish the war was over and everybody was alive…which made me oddly sad. Though I suppose any sadness was a good sign when it came to me.</p><p>It was July 30th. Less than forty-eight hours until what Leo called ‘<em> G-Day, when Gaea, the Princess of Potty Sludge will awaken in all her dirt-faced glory. </em>’</p><p>The strange thing was, the closer we got to August 1st, the more upbeat everyone acted. Or maybe <em> upbeat </em> wasn’t the right word. They seemed to be pulling together for the final lap - aware that the next two days would make or break them. There was no point moping around when you faced imminent death. The end of the world made gelato taste a lot better.</p><p>“The final battle will begin soon,” Rei had said, in one of her Khaos moods. It was sometimes hard to tell if Khaos was just influencing her or if Khaos had actually taken control, but either way I hated seeing her like that. “I wonder what will happen. How many trials the so-called forces of good may face?”</p><p>Veon had grumbled, in his Tartarus mood. “Yeah. Fun.”</p><p>“Oh, darling, don’t be so down. It <em> will </em> be fun, just you wait.”</p><p>I sighed, setting down my finished gelato cup. Azrael had only half-eaten his.</p><p>Emily missing, the Primordials no doubt plotting, whatever was happening with those Ward demigods - whatever was happening with <em> Tsuchi </em>…it was all starting to blur together into the hectic chaotic storm of trials we had to face.</p><p>I wished I knew what to do, but beyond my speed and my habit to build things, I had no idea <em> what </em> to do. Rei used to always be in charge before I died, and somehow someone else was always in charge. But even the others seemed anxious right now, wondering how we were going to approach this situation.</p><p>The plan, in theory, was simple: stop the giants from waking Gaea. Stop the war between the camps and therefore the divide between the gods. And…well, on the second front, Ane and the others were delivering the Athena Parthenos that would somehow get all the Romans and Greeks to stop fighting each other. As for us? We had Leo’s plan, and…charge in, weapons blazing, and do our best?</p><p>Piper set down her ice cream cup. “So, the island of Delos is right across the harbor. Artemis and Apollo’s home turf. Who’s going?”</p><p>“Me,” Leo said immediately.</p><p>Everybody stared at him.</p><p>“What?” Leo demanded. “I’m diplomatic and stuff. Frank and Hazel volunteered to back me up.”</p><p>“We did?” Frank lowered his half-eaten apple. “I mean…sure we did.”</p><p>Hazel’s gold eyes flashed in the sunlight. “Leo, did you have a dream about this or something?”</p><p>“Yes,” Leo blurted. “Well…no. Not exactly. But…you gotta trust me on this, guys. I need to talk to Apollo and Artemis. I’ve got an idea I need to bounce off them.”</p><p>“Then it’s settled.” Rei rose to her feet. “Kaze, Azrael, you will be accompanying me to visit Apollo and Artemis.”</p><p>“We?” Azrael asked.</p><p>“<em> Oui, </em>” she nodded. “That’s, uh, yes, in French.”</p><p>Azrael frowned. “I speak through the Veil. I understand French.”</p><p>“Rei…” Veon muttered.</p><p>She pointed at him. “You stay here. Got it?”</p><p>He looked ready to protest, opening his mouth to speak, but the words got caught in his throat. As if he was being purposefully silenced. As if Khaos were speaking to Tartarus. “Yes, ma’am,” he finally sighed.</p><p>Annabeth frowned, glancing between Leo and Rei. I wondered if this had something to do with the visits to the victory goddess Nike Leo had been having the past few days, heading down into the stables while leaving me in charge of looking after the ship. Annabeth looked ready to speak up and voice her concerns, but Jason spoke up.</p><p>“You guys have an idea?”</p><p>Leo nodded. “I got a plan.” He gave a confident thumbs-up with his charming, impish grin.</p><p>“Then we need to trust him,” Jason said firmly.</p><p>Leo almost looked guilty about Jason’s faith in him, as if he were abusing it. That worried me even further. “Thanks man,” Leo said, mustering a smile for his friend.</p><p>Percy shrugged. “Okay. But a word of advice: when you see Apollo, don’t mention haiku.”</p><p>Hazel knit her eyebrows. “Why not? Isn’t he the god of poetry?”</p><p>“Just trust me.”</p><p>“Haikus are stupid,” Rei said. “They don’t make a bit of sense. Refrigerator.”</p><p>I held up my fingers and began counting her syllables.</p><p>“This is a sentence,” Audrey said. “Here is yet another one. Why am I here now?”</p><p>“Oh gods, please no,” Percy muttered. He sounded like a man having post-traumatic flashbacks.</p><p>“To be honest, they’re doing better than most of what Apollo managed,” Annabeth sighed.</p><p>“Was it really that bad?” Frank asked.</p><p>“Yes,” Percy replied immediately.</p><p>“Got it, no haikus!” Leo rose to his feet. “And guys, if they have a souvenir shop on Delos, I’m totally bringing you back some Apollo and Artemis bobbleheads!”</p><hr/><p>Apollo didn’t seem to be in the mood for haiku. He wasn’t selling bobbleheads, either.</p><p>Frank had turned into a giant eagle to fly to Delos, but Leo hitched a ride with Hazel on Arion’s back. No offense to Frank, but after the fiasco at Fort Sumter, Leo had become a conscientious objector to riding giant eagles. He had a one hundred percent failure rate.</p><p>Rei said she would meet them there and disappeared in a flash of light. Veon gave a worried glance and stepped towards me. “Be careful,” he said. “And watch over her.”</p><p>“Why can not you come?” I wondered aloud.</p><p>He sighed. “Khaos and Tartarus are…confusing. It’s not easy interpreting things when you’ve got beings of such power in your heads. A lot of the time, neither of us are fully aware of ourselves when they take over - we’re just left with the lingering feelings that the Primordials felt. In Rei’s case, she seems overly eager, excited, and mellowed out. Tartarus, meanwhile, feels nothing but dread and anger and other such unhappy feelings. It could just be Tartarus unhappy with basically being Khaos’s pet at the moment, but…I can’t help thinking that it’s much more than that. My head…” He ran his hand through his dark hair. “Just be careful,” he repeated.</p><p>I nodded. “Veon-san…”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“I…I want to save Onesan.”</p><p>“Me too, kid. But without Emily, we are <em> seriously </em> unstable. I’m gonna try looking for her, try bringing her back.”</p><p>“Azrael can use the Veil to search.”</p><p>“I know, but bringing non-dead people into the Veil is risky, and not a good mode of transportation if we want to bring Emily back that way. Rei ordered I stay here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t <em> look </em> for Emily. Meanwhile, I need you looking after Rei.”</p><p>“And who will restrain <em> you? </em>”</p><p>He shrugged, glancing over at Audrey. “I think I can manage with what I have.”</p><p>I nodded. “Good luck.”</p><p>Azrael said that he could meet us there by traveling through the Veil, but even though he’d gotten a better sense of how to avoid the time dilation, there was still every chance he could end up arriving hours later. The Veil tended to lull Azrael into a sense of peace, the same way that one could zone out into their own thoughts while their body was on auto-pilot.</p><p>“Do you not want to come with me?” I asked.</p><p>“I…if it is not trouble,” he said lightly. He seemed to have grown more shy recently. Had something happened?</p><p>“Never,” I insisted.</p><p>I turned and knelt slightly. He wrapped his arms over my shoulders and then jumped onto my back. I wrapped my arms under his knees and allowed him to seat himself, clasping his hands in place and resting his head against my shoulder.</p><p>“Hold tight,” I warned.</p><p>“<em> Ja </em>.”</p><p>We blasted away, and Azrael’s grip tightened further. Luckily, speed-mode had a bit of magic enhancements to it, putting a layer of protection around anything that I wanted when at such high speeds. Though the ride was far faster, it wasn’t much worse than your average motorcycle ride in terms of the wind, and it barely lasted half a second.</p><p>I knew we were in the right place when I saw Onesan already there, writing something down in a journal. Her bow and quiver were clipped to her belt behind her and on her hip respectively, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail. She hadn’t been out on a mission in so long that it felt mildly disconcerting - though it honestly hadn’t been <em> that </em> long, in real-time. Maybe that was just the time-dilation getting to me.</p><p>Leo and Hazel arrived next on Arion with Frank coming down last and transforming back into human form.</p><p>We found the island deserted, maybe because the seas were too choppy for the tourist boats. The windswept hills were barren except for rocks, grass, and wildflowers - and, of course, a bunch of crumbling temples. The rubble was probably very impressive, but ever since Olympia, Leo had been on ancient ruins overload.</p><p>“I am <em> so </em> done with white marble columns,” he announced. “I want to get back to the U.S., where the oldest buildings are the public schools and Ye Olde McDonald’s.”</p><p>“McDonald’s sounds good,” Rei sighed. She sounded very normal in that moment. I wondered how long it would last.</p><p>We walked down an avenue lined with white stone lions, the faces weathered almost featureless.</p><p>“It’s eerie,” Hazel said.</p><p>“You sense any ghosts?” Frank asked.</p><p>She shook her head. “The <em> lack </em> of ghosts is eerie. Back in ancient times, Delos was sacred ground. No mortal was allowed to be born here or die here. There are literally <em> no </em> mortal spirits on this whole island.”</p><p>“The Veil is weak here,” Azrael announced. He held his hand out, and I assumed he was trying to reach into the Veil. He shook his head and dropped it. “I will be of no use.”</p><p>“You are useful,” I insisted.</p><p>He shook his head, but didn’t protest further.</p><p>“Does that mean nobody’s allowed to kill us here?” Leo asked hopefully.</p><p>“No one said anything about <em> that </em>,” Rei grumbled. “This way.” She led the charge and stopped at the summit of a low hill. “Down there.”</p><p>Below us, the hillside had been carved into an amphitheater. Scrubby plants sprouted between the rows of stone benches, so it looked like a concert for thorn bushes. Down at the bottom, sitting on a block of stone in the middle of the stage, the god Apollo hunched over a ukulele, plucking out a mournful tune.</p><p>At least, I <em> assumed </em> it was Apollo. The dude looked about seventeen, with curly blond hair and a perfect tan. He wore tattered jeans, a black T-shirt, and a white linen jacket with glittering rhinestone lapels, like he was trying for an Elvis/Ramones/Beach Boys hybrid look. I didn’t usually think of the ukulele as a sad instrument (pathetic, sure, but not sad), yet the tune Apollo strummed was so melancholy, it was making me feel sad.</p><p>There were certain times that I marveled at how different it was to be emotionless and to feel again. There was so much sadness to being human, I realized. It appeared that even with the gods there was so much sadness - especially during war.</p><p>Sitting in the front row was a young girl of about thirteen, wearing black leggings and a silver tunic, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was whittling on a long piece of wood - making a bow.</p><p>“Those are the gods?” Frank asked. “They don’t look like twins.”</p><p>“Well, think about it,” Hazel said. “If you’re a god, you can look like whatever you want. If you had a twin-”</p><p>“I’d choose to look like anything <em> but </em> my sibling,” Frank agreed. “So what’s the plan?”</p><p>“We can just-” Rei began, but Leo was already on the move.</p><p>“Don’t shoot!” he yelled. It seemed like a good opening line, facing two archery gods. He raised his arms and headed down to the stage.</p><p>Rei sighed. “Well, that’s one way to go about it,” she admitted.</p><p>The rest of us followed after Leo. Neither god looked surprised to see us.</p><p>Apollo sighed and went back to playing his ukulele.</p><p>When we got to the front row, Artemis muttered, “There you are. We were beginning to wonder.”</p><p>That took the pressure out of Leo’s pistons. He’d been ready to introduce himself, explain how we’d come in peace, maybe tell a few jokes, and offer breath mints. I suppose it took a lot of effort to muster such courage in front of gods. Or maybe Leo simply chose to treat it as a game to ease his nerves as he did anything. Either way, he was derailed within seconds by Artemis.</p><p>“So you were expecting us then,” Leo sighed. “I can tell, because you’re both so excited.”</p><p>Apollo plucked a tune that sounded like the funeral version of ‘<em> Camptown Races. </em>’ “We were expecting to be found, bothered, and tormented. We didn’t know by whom. Can you not leave us in our misery?”</p><p>“You know they can’t, brother,” Artemis chided. “They require our help with their quest, even if the odds are hopeless.”</p><p>“You two are full of good cheer,” Leo said. “Why are you hiding out here anyway? Shouldn’t you be…I dunno, fighting giants or something?”</p><p>“Leo, don’t be insensitive,” Rei chided.</p><p>Artemis’s pale eyes made Leo feel like he was a deer carcass about to be gutted. Trust Leo to be the one to instantly get two immortally powerful deitific women to death-glare him within the span of two sentences.</p><p>“Delos is our birthplace,” Artemis said. “Here, we are unaffected by the Greek-Roman schism. Believe me, Leo Valdez, if I could, I would be with my Hunters, facing our old enemy Orion. Unfortunately, if I stepped off this island, I would become incapacitated with pain. All I can do is watch helplessly while Orion slaughters my followers. Many gave their lives to protect your friends and that accursed Athena statue.”</p><p>Hazel made a strangled sound. “You mean Nico? Is he all right?”</p><p>“Ane!” I exclaimed.</p><p>“<em> All right? </em> ” Apollo sobbed over his ukulele. “ <em> None </em> of us are all right, girl! Gaea is rising!”</p><p>“Dramatic as ever.” Rei shook her head, but she was smiling.</p><p>Azrael quickly grabbed my arm. “Ane lives. I will sense her presence disrupting the Veil until she perishes.”</p><p>I sucked in a deep breath, though it did nothing to calm my nerves - in fact, I barely felt it. Probably because I didn’t actually need to breathe. Regardless, the motion was reflexive in a moment of distress.</p><p>It wasn’t anything I could do that relaxed me; it was just Azrael being so quick to reassure me as he did. Something about that calmed me more than the information itself.</p><p>Artemis glared at Apollo. “Hazel Levesque, your brother is still alive. He is a brave fighter, like you. I wish I could say the same for <em> my </em> brother.”</p><p>“You wrong me!” Apollo wailed. “I was misled by Gaea and that horrible Roman child!”</p><p>Frank cleared his throat. “Uh, Lord Apollo, you mean Octavian?”</p><p>“Do not speak his name!” Apollo strummed a minor chord. “Oh, Frank Zhang, if only you were my child. I heard your prayers, you know, all those weeks you wanted to be claimed. But alas! Mars gets all the good ones. I get…<em> that creature </em> as my descendant. He filled my head with compliments. He told me of the great temples he would build in my honor.”</p><p>Artemis snorted. “You are easily flattered, brother.”</p><p>“Because I have so many amazing qualities to praise! Octavian said he wanted to make the Romans strong again. I said fine! I gave him my blessing.”</p><p>“As I recall, he also promised to make you the most important god of the legion, above even Zeus.”</p><p>“Well, who was I to argue with an offer like that? Does Zeus have a perfect tan? Can <em> he </em> play the ukulele? I think not! But I <em> never </em> thought Octavian would start a war! Gaea must have been clouding my thoughts, whispering in my ear.”</p><p>“Well, that <em> did </em> happen with Aeolus too,” Rei muttered.</p><p>“Ah, yes, Rei! Your father was a good descendant of mine! It’s not my fault bad things happen to my bloodline; we’re just so amazing that evil forces can’t help but wish to corrupt us!”</p><p>Rei sighed and shook her head. “Right, yes, <em> amazing </em>.”</p><p>“Why don’t you fix it?” Leo said. “Tell Octavian to stand down. Or, you know, shoot him with one of your arrows. That would be fine too.”</p><p>“I cannot!” Apollo wailed. “Look!”</p><p>His ukulele turned into a bow. He aimed at the sky and shot. The golden arrow sailed about two hundred feet, then disintegrated into smoke.</p><p>“To shoot my bow, I would have to step off Delos,” Apollo cried. “Then I would be incapacitated, or Zeus would strike me down. Father never liked me. He hasn’t trusted me for millennia!”</p><p>“Well,” Artemis said, “to be fair, there was that time you conspired with Hera to overthrow him.”</p><p>“That was a misunderstanding!”</p><p>“And you killed some of Zeus’s Cyclopes.”</p><p>“I had a good reason for that! At any rate, now Zeus blames me for <em> everything </em> - Octavian’s schemes, the fall of Delphi-”</p><p>“Wait.” Hazel made a time-out sign. “The fall of Delphi?”</p><p>Apollo’s bow turned back into a ukulele. He plucked a dramatic chord. “When the schism began between Greek and Roman, while I struggled with confusion, Gaea took advantage! She raised my old enemy Python, the great serpent, to repossess the Delphi Oracle. That horrible creature is now coiled in the ancient caverns, blocking the magic of prophecy. I am stuck here, so I can’t even fight him.”</p><p>“Bummer,” Leo said, though secretly he thought that no more prophecies might be a good thing. His to-do list was already pretty full.</p><p>“Bummer indeed!” Apollo sighed. “Zeus was <em> already </em> angry with me for appointing that new girl, Rachel Dare, as my Oracle. Zeus seems to think I <em> hastened </em> the war with Gaea by doing so, since Rachel issued the Prophecy of Seven as soon as I blessed her.”</p><p>Rei shook her head. “That man adds ever more to his penance…” she muttered darkly. I could feel the Primordial aura attempting to leak through to the surface.</p><p>“But prophecy doesn’t work that way!” Apollo went on. “Father just needed someone to blame. So of course he picked the handsomest, most talented, hopelessly awesome god.”</p><p>Artemis made a gagging gesture.</p><p>“Oh, stop it, sister!” Apollo said. “You’re in trouble too!”</p><p>“Only because I stayed in touch with my Hunters against Zeus’s wishes,” Artemis said. “But I can always charm Father into forgiving me. He’s never been able to stay mad at me.”</p><p>“He loves his daughters,” Rei agreed. “Athena and Poseidon also participated in that attempt to overthrow Zeus. Hera got the worst punishment, Poseidon and Apollo were forced into servitude as humans, and Athena managed to merely <em> talk </em> her way out of punishment. I still remember Hera’s screams…” She shook her head. “In any case, I believe Apollo is most at risk. He has always been one of my favorites.”</p><p>“As much as I hate to admit it, it’s <em> you </em> I’m worried about,” Artemis said. “Communing with my Hunters is hardly compared to all the transgressions he blames <em> you </em> for.”</p><p>“I’m worried about me too!” Apollo wailed. “We have to do something. We can’t kill Octavian. Hmm. Perhaps we should kill <em> these </em> demigods.”</p><p>“Whoa there, Music Man.” Leo resisted the urge to hide behind Frank and yell, ‘<em> Take the big Canadian dude! </em>’ “We’re on your side, remember? Why would you kill us?”</p><p>“It might make me feel better!” Apollo said. “I have to do <em> something! </em>”</p><p>“Killing some random demigods attempting to stop the very people you <em> wish </em> to kill will not make you feel better,” Rei sighed.</p><p>“You could always try the other option - helping us,” Leo said. “See, we’ve got this plan…”</p><p>He told them how Hera had directed us to Delos, and how Nike had described the ingredients for the physician’s cure.</p><p>“The physician’s cure?” Apollo stood and smashed his ukulele on the stones. “<em> That’s </em> your plan?”</p><p>Leo raised his hands. “Hey, um, usually I’m all for smashing ukuleles, but-”</p><p>“I cannot help you!” Apollo cried. “If I told you the secret of the physician’s cure, Zeus would <em> never </em> forgive me!”</p><p>“You’re already in trouble,” Leo pointed out. “How could it get worse?”</p><p>Apollo glared at him. “If you knew what my father is capable of, mortal, you would not ask. It would be simpler if I just smote you all. That might please Zeus-”</p><p>“Brother…” Artemis interjected.</p><p>The twins locked eyes and had a silent argument. Apparently Artemis won. Apollo heaved a sigh and kicked his broken ukulele across the stage.</p><p>Artemis rose. “Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, come with me. There are things you should know about the Twelfth Legion. As for you, Leo Valdez-” The goddess turned those cold silver eyes on him. “Apollo will hear you out. See if you can strike a deal. My brother always likes a good bargain.”</p><p>Frank and Hazel both glanced at him like, ‘<em> Please don’t die </em>.’</p><p>“Ah, and Kaze Grigora, Azrael von Allem, I have something I wish to impart upon you both as well.” Her eyes moved to Rei. “We shall speak later, my lady.” She glanced at Apollo. “Mind your behavior for our guest, brother.”</p><p>With that, she headed up the steps of the amphitheater and we followed her over the crest of the hill, leaving Leo at the mercy of Apollo - and more importantly, my sister who had the unrestricted power of two Primordials raging within her.</p><p>And Khaos now had before her a victim of Zeus’s foolish wrath. It wasn’t new that Zeus had wronged many, both mortal and immortal alike. I hated the god myself for what he forced both of my parents to go through - preventing Hermes from contacting my mother or I, driving Tsuchi to madness and me to become…<em> this </em>.</p><p>It was then that I truly began to worry about why Khaos had come here - and without Veon/Tartarus as well. And I began to really consider the possibility that Khaos wanted Zeus’s downfall. A part of me also worried that I would agree with them, that I would let them have it.</p><hr/><p>First Person: Audrey</p><p>“How about this?”</p><p>I raised my hands and transformed the ocean beneath me, raising up a column of water to freeze it into a mini-ice castle. It was like a sandcastle, but with…ya know, ice.</p><p>Percy and I stood atop the water not far from the Argo II. Annabeth and Piper were officially on duty, with Veon and Jason below deck sleeping after their night shift fighting the last wave of monsters as we approached Mykonos. Percy and I had been taking day and night shifts, but even though I’d been up all night, I was still wide awake.</p><p>Oddly enough, ever since that encounter with Kymopoleia where that powerful and yet angry force had taken hold of me, I’d been filled to the brim with energy while also more exhausted than I’d been in ages. During the first few hours afterwards, I’d been trembling - though I wasn’t able to tell whether or not that was from fatigue or from a sugar-rush-like energy spike.</p><p>Over the past few days, I’d managed to calm myself and stop the light tremor that constantly threatened to break free, but I still felt like I was in between a sugar high and a sugar crash all at once.</p><p>That whole incident with boiling a squid to the point of blowing it up actually hadn’t been Percy’s fault. Well, not Percy <em> entirely </em> . I had been training him to boil water at the time, and the goal had just been to scare the thing away. Instead, both Percy and I had given a little <em> too </em> much effort. Percy had aimed for the tentacles surrounding the ship in order to free it. I had aimed for the body. And the body had accidentally exploded a bit.</p><p>Percy easily flicked his hand and formed a little water castle sitting on the sea, but beyond that, all he managed to do was give the little castle a death glare. We’d cleared out a small arena amongst the rolling waves.</p><p>“You need to…slow the water down, you know?” I suggested. I tried to think back to the first time that I’d managed to freeze water before, but that was so long ago. After all the training I’d done, such things just came naturally. And besides, it was hard to train an ADHD demigod to actually <em> control </em> their perception of time outside of the heat of battle.</p><p>Percy sighed, his shoulders drooping and the water castle plopping back into the sea to join the rest of the saltwater around us. “Maybe we should go find another squid monster and see if it can scare me into managing this technique too.”</p><p>Percy hadn’t been making much progress on boiling water before the squid had arrived. The closest thing that he’d managed was causing the water to <em> maybe </em> boil from his frustration - although that could’ve easily just been him kinetically moving the water to mimic boiling just because that was what he thought it would look like.</p><p>“We can go back to heating water,” I suggested. “You can boil it, but now you should try instantly turning it to steam.”</p><p>He nodded. Percy’s hydrokinesis was so strong that he could use it unconsciously at this point; if he sneezed too hard it could cause all the water in the area to sneeze with him. Metaphorically speaking. I think. Even <em> I </em> had to concentrate whenever I manipulated water, but Percy could do it without even directing his thoughts to move something with purpose.</p><p>It still amazed me that Percy Jackson had done all the adventures that Annabeth and the others at Camp Half-Blood had spoken of. This Percy Jackson before me had fought in a Titan war, bathed in the River Styx, gotten turned into a hamster. He’d defeated countless monsters, met countless gods of good and evil natures, named an Ophiotaurus Bessie.</p><p>But at least I could both boil and freeze water better than him. Oh, and transform my body <em> into </em> water too, I guess.</p><p>I kept thinking back to when we were in Venice, when Triton had pulled me aside saying that Poseidon had wanted to talk to me through his madness - that he wanted to warn me about my fate. I thought that he had meant maybe what had happened in Tartarus? But now, I wasn’t so sure.</p><p>I ran my finger along the creases in my palm, feeling my heartbeat through the veins within my hand.</p><p>What if it was that…that power? What if <em> that </em> was what Dad had been warning me about?</p><p>In the recent Titan war, it had been Poseidon ripping a portal to Tartarus that had managed to defeat Typhon. I mean, it was one thing to rip a portal to Tartarus; it was another thing to be able to host his consciousness!</p><p>“Ha! In record time,” Percy was saying. He had a cylinder of water hovering above his hands, bubbling and steaming as he concentrated. It looked like he was trying to scare the water into boiling away by giving it a constipated face. “Now I can…boil noodles menacingly.”</p><p>“Boil noodles without blowing them up,” I corrected.</p><p>“Mac and cheese across the land shall fear my power!”</p><p>“Great. Now cool it down, quick as you can.”</p><p>He dropped the ball of boiling water into the sea again. He waved his hands as though showing off a magic trick. “Ta-da!”</p><p>I sighed. “Not what I meant, but I guess it works. Still, cooling down boiling water is the first step to freezing it. You don’t wanna get caught with boiling water and nowhere to put it.”</p><p>He stared down at the water in thought. “The water doesn’t wanna cool. Besides, I don’t like cold water.”</p><p>“The <em> ocean </em> is pretty cold,” I pointed out.</p><p>“Yeah, but like…not <em> that </em> cold.”</p><p>I shrugged. “Maybe that’s the problem. You aren’t affected much by the ocean’s colder temperatures, so it’s harder for you to summon the power of cooling down water. What if…what if you imagine taking <em> away </em> heat rather than trying to <em> add </em> cold?”</p><p>He nodded. “Okay.”</p><p>I held up a bubbling orb of boiling water for him to work with, but before we could get into it, there was a disturbance in the sea beneath us. Both Percy and I instantly stopped from the enormous object rising at high speeds, trying to discern what it was. It wasn’t like anything that I’d encountered before; it didn’t seem to be something swimming <em> through </em> the water, but it was pushing upwards without a hydrodynamic shape like a giant battering ram. Was the earth trying to attack us <em> through </em> the sea? Was that something Gaea could <em> do? </em></p><p>“That’s…big.”</p><p>“A monster?”</p><p>“If it is, it’s the size of an island!”</p><p>Percy groaned. “Not another one of those turtle things from with Sciron!”</p><p>“I don’t think that’s it-!”</p><p>An enormous island shot out of the sea beneath us. Percy and I each wrapped some seawater beneath us as a shield to help us hover above the earth, back-to-back looking for an enemy.</p><p>While I had expected the landmass to have been covered in silt or seaweed of some kind, it ended up being a completely dry and clean stone platform; the water disappeared from it without Percy or I doing anything. The earth wasn’t flat, but it was certainly deliberately carved as some sort of large battle arena.</p><p>“The others!”</p><p>The Argo II was raising an alarm, but rocks began rising from the ocean and trapping the ship from moving - not that it really could do much moving at the moment even <em> without </em> being trapped. Veon had begun working on fixing the ship, but without Leo, Kaze, or even Emily, the best he could do was patch up the ship so that it didn’t just collapse in on itself. The earth shot out of the sea around them and formed an enormous dome that wrapped even above the masts, completely encasing the ship from all sides.</p><p>“Annabeth!” Percy instantly shouted.</p><p>“Come on!” I urged.</p><p>We used our water shields and glided back towards the ocean and towards the entombed ship, but just as we passed over the remaining ocean, jagged spikes of earth began shooting through the water towards us. Percy and I were forced to split up, using the ocean to sense where the rock spikes were coming from and throwing ourselves up and away to dodge.</p><p>“Your friends will be safe.”</p><p>Percy pulled the water of the sea upwards in a water spout to hold himself above the rocky trap. He had drawn Riptide, and so it looked like he was trying to imitate a Naga.</p><p>A boy who I recognized from the party that had captured Hera back in Ithaca was now standing in the center of the large arena-like island that had formed beneath us before. He was the one that had been able to manipulate the marble and stone - Quake.</p><p>“And who are <em> you </em> supposed to be?” Percy asked.</p><p>“I am Quake, LK-2. And I am here to kill you, Perseus Jackson.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. To Strike a Bargain</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Update Part 3 of 4<br/>I think this might be the shortest of the bunch, mainly because the chapter AFTER this is the one that I cut from this one because it was getting too lengthy. Because I ramble too much. And so the next chapter is a lot of my philosophizing. And it's also probably the longest out of all these updates.</p><p>Enjoy! :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>First Person: Azrael</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was odd, being in the presence of a god in such a…peaceful manner. Most gods that I met were usually brought before me so that the Wards could test my ability to kill them. Even being free of the Wards, I’d killed Khione as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Apollo won’t…</span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> kill Leo, will he?” Hazel asked nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know Leo,” Frank said comfortingly. “He’s an expert at…uh…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Accident-ing his way to a good idea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Frank sighed. “Aren’t we all?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The four of us followed Artemis, though Kaze seemed distracted, glancing back to watch his sister until they were out of sight. I wished I could support him somehow, but…I couldn’t do anything that would be manipulative over my abilities keeping his soul in charge of his body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kaze,” I prompted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hm.” He probably hadn’t even heard me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This should suffice,” Artemis announced. “First, Kaze and Azrael. There is an important task that I must entrust with you.” She held out her hand and passed me a piece of paper. “This is the current location of Emily Hezesto. The two of you are the only ones allowed to seek her out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Kaze asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Artemis’s gaze hardened. “Unfortunately, there are many factors at play during these final days of this war. The forces protecting her are impenetrable by most standards, and the Seven of your prophesied crew must stay focused on their goal. Your sister, Kaze Grigora, you cannot help her. Not as you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze’s posture stiffened. “Then how must I change?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I looked down at the folded paper in my hand. “We can seek Emily. But can we return with her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do not know. But they wish to see you, so that will allow you to at least approach the situation. If you will be able to escape, that is still uncertain.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze frowned. “So we are sacrifice. We help the Argo II or we leave.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you find her location, you may consider going to see her. But there is no guarantee that either of you will be able to return, much less with your friend in tow.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why would we leave with such odds?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because you may have the chance to bend the outcome of this war to your needs. But like I said, it is no guarantee. Nothing is, in times as uncertain as these. Go. Discuss it as you please. If you wish to say farewell to your friends before you leave, that is none of my business, but for now, I must speak with Hazel and Frank.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The 13-year-old-looking goddess shooed us away while she then began talking with Frank and Hazel, their expressions turning grim all around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Should we open it?” Kaze asked. Kaze switched between his weak English and his adept Japanese back and forth, and even though the Veil translated both for me, I could tell the difference just through the ticks of his words and his speed and confidence in his speech. He was nice when speaking his native tongue, even if it was being translated into German. Japanese hit so many more consonants.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If we do, we are not forced to go. We can just look.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze nodded. He was very unhappy with leaving his sister alone with Apollo and Leo, let alone leaving her when he had no guarantee of returning. While Kaze was more in control of his emotions than he would be if he weren’t a Reanimation clinging to his soul, I could sense that he was really wounded by Artemis’s words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Your sister, Kaze Grigora, you cannot help her. Not as you are.</span>
  </em>
  <span>’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those words had stung like she’d shot an arrow through his heart. Kaze had spent a great deal of his life being protected or being alone; he had spent his life unable to do any protecting himself. His mother had suffered, and a part of him was always aware that his very existence was a burden to her. He hadn’t been able to help her, he had barely been old enough to realize what her suffering truly </span>
  <em>
    <span>meant</span>
  </em>
  <span> until it was too late. He had managed to learn how to survive without his mother for a little while, but then Rei had come along and the two of them had lived together. For a lot of it, Rei was teaching and protecting </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Kaze hadn’t been able to save her either. To him, Rei had been influenced by gods who didn’t care about her. It was terrible watching loved ones go along with and trust self-destructive plans because they think it’s destiny or they think there’s no other way, and it’s worse when he had only ever seen the gods sacrifice humans for their own survival. And the humans go along with it because it’s fate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hell, even the whole trip with this war against Gaea fed into Kaze’s hatred. The gods (Zeus in particular) were responsible for ignoring the threats of Gaea’s rise until it had gotten out of control, and all of these demigods were having to risk so much because of it. His own sister in particular had fallen prey once more to giving herself and Veon and even some of her friends the burden of attempting to host an extremely dangerous and dubious deity. Because it was destiny. Because they had to. There was no choice, or there </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a choice, but not to his sister.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I opened the note Artemis had written. It was written in German, but it was just a few words so that fact didn’t stand out to me until Kaze said, “What that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t read it? Well that wasn’t a problem; I could just tell Kaze what it said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But for some reason, I hesitated. If I told Kaze, he might take up the opportunity to rush off. But I knew that he wanted to stay here to look after his sister. It wouldn’t be a problem if Artemis hadn’t revealed that we might get trapped, we might not be able to return in time to be of use to the others. We leave, we likely won’t be able to get back. We stay, we could still choose to go later. Well, if we managed to survive that long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will go. You stay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? But Artemis gave this to both of us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“One can go, one can stay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. I need you to live as me, Azrael.” Kaze’s scowl always looked halfway between a childish tantrum and a Reanimation’s dark emotionless glare. A very bi-polar contrast, I know, but that was the only way to describe it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do not. You are you. You are strong. You have no need for me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do,” he insisted. “Even if you are right, what if you are wrong? If you leave and I am not strong enough, I will harm the others. As Gaea gets stronger, her hold over me will be stronger as well. Even if I am strong, I need your help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> have a point there, I suppose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Azrael, you okay?” He reached out and put his hand on my forehead. His hand wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm either. I had a feeling he had no idea what he was doing, but checking one’s forehead was supposed to be a way to test one’s health I guess?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am fine.” I swatted his hand away, though honestly it wasn’t an unpleasant thing to have Kaze attempting to worry over me even when he didn’t actually know what he was doing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have been sad. Be not sad.” He poked me in the temple as though he was trying to poke my happy button.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kazeeeee…!” It wasn’t exactly easy to swat away a creature that was made of magical dark energies and Gaea’s clay body that was near invincible, but I gave it my best effort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We both go or we both leave,” Kaze concluded. “Or I might go mad. Bonkers. Coo-coo.” He started listing off synonyms for going crazy that got increasingly odd through translation. There were some words that didn’t easily translate from Japanese to German, but I got the general gist.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “If that was a threat…fine.” I handed him the note from Artemis and let the Veil translate for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I had a feeling that back when Kaze had a real body, his reactions were very big and dramatic, because even with his stoic body from Gaea, he managed a stunned reaction. “Camp Half-Blood?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nearby, I’d assume. In the armies of the Roman camp.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She is hostage then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Likely. But this is why we may not return. And yet she said we could help change the outcome of the war.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kaze raised an eyebrow in thought. “Emily was taken by Ward kids, no?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The ones that could choose a side and make our job easy or impossible,” I agreed, following his thought process.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So we can help change their minds.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have two days.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Less.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Little chance. Little plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should tell Veon-san,” Kaze announced. “He search for Emily. He must have plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I sighed. “I will take plan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then we go to Veon-san. Then we go to save Emily-chan.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Chan, san, chan, san,” I muttered. The Japanese honorifics didn’t translate precisely, and so they just ended up coming out as ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>san</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>chan</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ with Kaze’s full accent rather than something like ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Mister</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Missus</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ or ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>child</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ or some other odd word that the Veil translated as best it could. Same way that names obviously didn’t translate, even if someone had a name that meant something else in another language. It was cute.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>yes?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’” He was smiling. Unlike his other suppressed expressions, he managed a goofy grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I couldn’t help but feel at least some semblance of relaxation from his attempts at remaining lighthearted. If that didn’t prove that Kaze’s soul was strong enough to fight his Reanimation’s state, then I didn’t know what was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It is ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>yes</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’”</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>Third Person: Rei</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There could be a lot of ways to describe how Rei was feeling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bored would be the primary adjective at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Leo Valdez?” Apollo folded his arms. His eyes glowed with golden light. “Let us bargain, then. What can you offer that would convince me to help you rather than kill you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A bargain.” Leo’s fingers twitched. “Yeah. Absolutely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His hands went to work before his mind knew what he was doing. He started pulling things out of the pockets of his magic tool belt - copper wire, some bolts, a brass funnel. For months he’d been stashing away bits and pieces of machinery, because he never knew what he might need. Kaze may have had the storage space for bigger objects, but Leo was no slouch. And the longer he used the belt, the more intuitive it became. He’d reach in and the right items would simply appear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So the thing is,” Leo said as his hands twisted wire, “Zeus is already P.O.’ed at you, right? If you help us defeat Gaea, you could make it up to him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo wrinkled his nose. “I suppose that’s possible. But it would be easier to smite you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of ballad would </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> make?” Leo’s hands worked furiously, attaching levers, fastening the metal funnel to an old gear shaft. “You’re the god of music, right? Would you listen to a song called ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Apollo Smites a Runty Little Demigod</span>
  </em>
  <span>’? I wouldn’t. But ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Apollo Defeats the Earth Mother and Saves the Freaking Universe</span>
  </em>
  <span>’…</span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> sounds like a Billboard chart-topper!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo gazed into the air, as if envisioning his name on a marquee. “What do you want exactly? And what do I get out of it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“First thing I need: advice.” Leo strung some wires across the mouth of the funeral. “I want to know if a plan of mine will work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo explained what he had in mind. He’d been chewing on the idea for days, ever since Jason came back from the bottom of the sea and Leo started talking with Nike.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>A primordial god has been defeated once before,</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Kympoleia had told Jason. ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>You know of whom I speak</span>
  </em>
  <span>.’</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo’s conversations with Nike had helped him fine-tune the plan, but he still wanted a second opinion from another god. Because once Leo committed himself, there would be no going back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rei and her </span>
  <em>
    <span>own</span>
  </em>
  <span> Primordial hadn’t been that helpful. Just because he had the </span>
  <em>
    <span>ability</span>
  </em>
  <span> to speak with a Primordial more ancient than even Gaea and Tartarus, it didn’t mean that they planned to be of any help. He supposed that once you got that ancient, he should just be glad that the Primordial within her didn’t want to join Gaea and destroy the world even </span>
  <em>
    <span>faster</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could die,” Khaos had said helpfully when Leo had consulted her (them?).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could die painfully.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could die painfully and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look lady - or dude, or whatever I should call you, your Primordial-Ship - are you gonna give me any </span>
  <em>
    <span>helpful</span>
  </em>
  <span> advice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If it were </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> easy, where would I get </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> of my fun, sweetheart? No, no, the most helpful thing I can give you is this: it’s very easy to die, Leo Valdez. It all depends on what you </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> with your death. Have you ever considered why beings as big as me and as little as the weenie babies you call ‘gods’ want humans to continue to exist? Your worth amounts to little power, great arrogance, amazing levels of destructive cruelty, and on top of all that, no matter how many times you make things right, in a few more generations everything either becomes boring or absurdly depressing! I mean look at all the depressing things that come of you humans. So why do you think you’re important enough that the gods want you around?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh…because we…can also do </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span> things?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Could be put more elegantly, but yes. Think of that whenever you have doubts. Your value, Leo Valdez, has already been established. If nothing else, you will put on a show. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, just remember that creatures like you humans will always come into existence </span>
  <em>
    <span>eventually</span>
  </em>
  <span>. If you lose and this world is destroyed, in another few thousand years I might make some </span>
  <em>
    <span>new</span>
  </em>
  <span> humans! Or heck, maybe I’ll keep some of the other religions alive to screw with </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span> too! I mean we can’t just have the Greeks and Romans fail and the other religions pop out of existence for something they weren’t even responsible for! I put a lot of </span>
  <em>
    <span>work</span>
  </em>
  <span> into those religions! I should trigger Ragnarok and watch as the gods do glorious battle until </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them are dead instead of a few survivors; I should destroy the world of the Fifth Sun in that giant earthquake I planned ages ago; I should make that giant snake eat Ra already! Oh, it would be so much fun! Yes, don’t worry, if you fail, Leo Valdez, I’ll make sure you humans all die out so that I’ll have an excuse to make some </span>
  <em>
    <span>new</span>
  </em>
  <span> humans! Maybe I’ll give you more limbs, or more eyes, or-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so that was how Leo discovered he should </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> speak to Khaos about anything. Like ever.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo half hoped Apollo would laugh and tell him to forget it. Instead, the god nodded thoughtfully. “I will give you this advice for free. You </span>
  <em>
    <span>might</span>
  </em>
  <span> be able to defeat Gaea in the way you describe, similar to the way Ouranos was defeated eons ago. However, any mortal close by would be utterly…” Apollo’s voice faltered. “What is that you have made?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo looked down at the contraption in his hands. Layers of copper wires, like multiple sets of guitar strings, crisscrossed inside the funnel. Rows of striking pins were controlled by levers on the outside of the cone, which was fixed to a square metal base with a bunch of crank handles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, this…?” Leo’s mind raced furiously. The thing looked like a music box fused with an old-fashioned phonograph, but what </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> it?</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>A bargaining chip</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Artemis had told him to make a deal with Apollo.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo remembered a story the kids in Cabin Eleven used to brag about: how their father Hermes had avoided punishment for stealing Apollo’s sacred cows. When Hermes got caught, he made a musical instrument - the first lyre - and traded it to Apollo, who immediately forgave him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few days ago, Piper mentioned seeing the cave on Pylos where Hermes hid those cows. That must’ve triggered Leo’s subconscious. Without even meaning to, he’d built a musical instrument, which kinda surprised him, since he knew nothing about music.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, well,” Leo said, “this is quite simply the most amazing instrument ever!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How does it work?” asked the god.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Good question</span>
  </em>
  <span>,’ Leo thought.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned the crank handles, hoping the thing wouldn’t explode in his face. A few clear tones rang out - metallic yet warm. Leo manipulated the levers and gears. He recognized the song that sprang forth - the same wistful melody Calypso sang for him on Ogygia about homesickness and longing. But through the strings of the brass cone, the tune sounded even sadder, like a machine with a broken heart - the way Festus might sound if he could sing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo forgot Apollo and Rei were even there. He played the song all the way through. When he was done, his eyes stung. He could almost smell the fresh-baked bread from Calypso’s kitchen. He could taste the only kiss she’d ever given him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo stared in awe at the instrument. “I must have it. What is it called? What do you want for it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo had a sudden instinct to hide the instrument and keep it for himself. But he swallowed his melancholy. He had a task to complete. Calypso…Calypso needed him to succeed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is the Valdezinator, of course!” He puffed out his chest. “It works by, um, translating your feelings into music as you manipulate the gears. It’s really meant for me, a child of Hephaestus, to use, though. I don’t know if you could-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am the god of music!” Apollo cried. “I can </span>
  <em>
    <span>certainly</span>
  </em>
  <span> master the Valdezinator. I must! It is my duty!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So let’s wheel and deal, Music Man,” Leo said. “I give you this; you give me the physician’s cure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh…” Apollo bit his godly lip. “Well, I don’t actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> the physician’s cure.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought you were the god of medicine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but I’m the god of </span>
  <em>
    <span>many</span>
  </em>
  <span> things! Poetry, music, the Delphic Oracle-” He broke into a sob and covered his mouth with his fist. “Sorry. I’m fine. As I was saying, I have many spheres of influence. Then, of course, I have the whole ‘sun god’ gig, which I inherited from Helios. The point is, I’m rather like a general practitioner. For the physician’s cure, you would need to see a specialist - the only one who has ever successfully cured death: my son Asclepius, the god of healers.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo’s heart sank into his pockets. The </span>
  <em>
    <span>last</span>
  </em>
  <span> thing they needed was another quest to find another god who would probably demand his own commemorative T-shirt or Valdezinator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a shame, Apollo. I was hoping we could make a deal.” Leo turned the levers on his Valdezinator, coaxing out an even sadder tune.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop!” Apollo wailed. “It’s too beautiful! I’ll give you directions to Asclepius. He’s really very close!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do we know he’ll help us? We’ve only got two days until Gaea wakes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’ll help!” Apollo promised. “My son is </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> helpful. Just plead with him in my name. You’ll find him at his old temple in Epidaurus.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the catch?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah…well, nothing. Except, of course, he’s guarded.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guarded by what?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know!” Apollo spread his hands helplessly. “I only know Zeus is keeping Asclepius under guard so he doesn’t go running around the world resurrecting people. The first time Asclepius raised the dead…well, he caused quite an uproar. It’s a long story. But I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>sure</span>
  </em>
  <span> you can convince him to help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This isn’t sounding like much of a deal,” Leo said. “What about the last ingredient - the curse of Delos. What is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo eyed the Valdezinator greedily. Leo worried the god might just take it, and how could Leo stop him? Blasting the sun god with fire probably wouldn’t do much good. Rei was sitting in one of the seats in the second row, her feet up on the chair back in front of her. She didn’t look like she was gonna be any help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No offense to Rei herself, but that Primordial within her…well, Leo couldn’t say he was fond of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can give the last ingredient to you,” Apollo said. “Then you’ll have everything you need to Asclepius to brew the potion.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo played another verse. “I dunno. Trading this beautiful Valdezinator for some Delos curse-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not actually a curse! Look…” Apollo sprinted to the nearest patch of wildflowers and pocked a yellow one from a crack between the stones. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>This</span>
  </em>
  <span> is the curse of Delos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo stared at it. “A cursed daisy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apollo sighed in exasperation. “That’s just a nickname. When my mother, Leto, was ready to give birth to Artemis and me, Hera was angry, because Zeus had cheated on her again. So she went around to every single landmass on earth. She made the nature spirits in each place promise to turn my mother away so she couldn’t give birth anywhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds like something Hera would do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know, right? Anyway, Hera exacted promises from every land that was rooted on the earth - but </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> from Delos, because back then Delos was a floating island. The nature spirits of Delos welcomed my mother. She gave birth to my sister and me, and the island was so happy to be our new sacred home it covered itself in these little yellow flowers. The flowers are a blessing, because we’re awesome. But they also symbolize a curse, because once we were born, Delos got rooted in place and wasn’t able to drift around the sea anymore. That’s why yellow daisies are called the curse of Delos.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I could have just picked a daisy myself and walked away.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no! Not for the potion you have in mind. The flower would have to be picked by either my sister or me. So what do you say, demigod? Directions to Asclepius and your last magical ingredient in exchange for that new musical instrument - do we have a deal?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leo hated to give away a perfectly good Valdezinator for a wildflower, but he saw no other choice. “You drive a hard bargain, Music Man.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made the trade.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excellent!” Apollo turned the levers of the Valdezinator, which made a sound like a car engine on a cold morning. “Hmm…perhaps it’ll take some practice, but I’ll get it! Now let us find your friends. The sooner you leave the better!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Meanwhile, </span>
  <em>
    <span>we</span>
  </em>
  <span> have things to discuss, my little Apollo!” Rei exclaimed. She felt her Primordial getting excited, which helped brighten her mood. And also made her a little more afraid of what happened when her Primordial started getting happy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time Leo was headed back to the Delos docks to meet up with Hazel, Frank, Kaze, and Azrael, he turned to tell Apollo good-bye, but the two gods had vanished.</span>
</p><hr/><p>
  <span>First Person: Audrey</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy was characteristically calm about being told that he was gonna get killed. I mean, I suppose he was probably so used to it by now that death threats were about as effective as an angry comment on YouTube. Honestly, a YouTube comments section could probably be more deadly than </span>
  <em>
    <span>any</span>
  </em>
  <span> death threats Percy’s heard before. Monsters ain’t got nothin’ on the haters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We must do battle,” Quake said simply.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah, I got that part. But who are you and why must we do glorious battle or whatnot?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy’s face shifted only just slightly, but I could see the irritation flickering to the surface on his otherwise stoic expression. “I already told you. I am Quake, LK-2, and I have been ordered to kill you. So I will. And you must fight me in an attempt to preserve your life. That is how battle works.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Look, I don’t know what your deal is, but if I’m going to die, can I at least get some answers first?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s one of the Ward kids,” I said. “Remember that report we got?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, tough kids raised to be weapons in Facilities, right? Uh…which one were you again? Sorry, there were so many that I kinda lost track pretty quickly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake exhaled through his nose with a clear wave of exasperation. “I am LK-2, R Neptune, <em>S.C.F.E. - 0025 - ENSDN QK</em>, generation 629, wave Eta, par-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay! Okay! You’re Quake, I get it!” Percy huffed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now both Percy </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> Quake seemed exasperated, and I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between them. “Hey, did you just say Neptune?” I realized.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake nodded. “I am R Neptune - Roman Neptune. LK, Lab Kid. Or Lab Creation, but because Creation is spelled with a ‘C’ in this culture, it makes less sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The letter C is always bad news,” Percy muttered. “You’ve got the S, you’ve got the K, so why does the letter C exist? If it didn’t exist, I wouldn’t get Cs on my report card…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But then you’d be getting Ds,” I pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, no, I’d be getting Bs.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I shrugged. “Sounds bad either way you put it. Though getting Ds sounds a lot worse out of context…”<br/></span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then again, without C we wouldn’t have the sea.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sea isn’t spelled with a C though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It isn’t?” Percy had one of those blue-screen moments where he knew the information but somehow it didn’t make sense even though he knew that it did and should make sense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake glanced between us and then stomped his foot, causing the whole island he’d risen to shake. “Cease your worthless banter! I have explained who I am, now we must fight! I hold your ship with your companions hostage! If you wish them freed, you must greet me in battle!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something told me that Quake wasn’t used to doing the talking when it came to hyping up a fight. He just stated ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>We must fight</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ and seemed to expect that to be enough incentive for us. Then he remembered that oh yeah he had hostages so maybe </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> would get us angry enough to start a conflict.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now I wasn’t any expert on people (I dabbled in writing characters in my free time, but real people are more difficult than literary people), but to me, Quake appeared to have no sense of how to interact with others using his words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which made sense, I supposed. After everything that I’d learned about Azrael in the short time I’d known him, the Wards taught one to be complacent and to follow orders. Though Quake seemed to be an excellent fighter and soldier, for some reason he appeared to be here alone. And being alone meant that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> had to somehow goad us into a fight; all he had been told was that he needed to fight us, and after that, he was sent here without any further instructions. Quake didn’t have someone to give him orders right now, he didn’t have someone to do the talking while he did the battling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was like he needed an Annabeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy, though Annabeth was usually the brains of the operation, knew very well how to talk his way through a situation, regardless of if he was totally BS-ing the entire conversation the whole way through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Quake, for all his flashy power - just going by his entrance and what I’d seen him do in Ithaca - didn’t know what to do if his opponents weren’t reacting the way he’d expected them to. Aka, accepting the challenge to fight just because he said they needed to. He wasn’t used to dealing with people who were non-complacent, at least not without help by his side. He wasn’t used to people…not fighting him when he was told to fight them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right, right, friends are held hostage.” Percy did his best to keep his tone light and even, though I knew he was genuinely worried about the others as well as the state of the ship. “I wanted info, yes, but I didn’t want your whole lab I.D.; I just want to know why you wanna kill me! Tell me that, and we can fight, all right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake’s nose twitched in irritation, but he sighed. “I am here to kill you because Boss told me to.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s gotta be more than that. Look, I get people trying to kill me all the time. And monsters. Mostly monsters. And sometimes gods. And other creatures in between. The point is, I’ve got a lot on my plate. At the moment, everyone who wants to kill me is being ordered to kill or capture me by ol’ Dirt Face Gaea. What about you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake shook his head. “We do not work for the gods nor the Primordials above them. The ultimate goal of the Wards is to protect humanity.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you should be working with us to fight Gaea and the giants! They’re trying to end the world, ya know. That would be bad for the whole protecting humanity thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake’s dark eyes locked onto Percy’s sea green ones. It was one of those ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Do you take me for a fool?</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ looks. I couldn’t tell precisely what it meant when you got that look so much that it was easy to recognize. Probably that you’d been a demigod for </span>
  <em>
    <span>far</span>
  </em>
  <span> too long at that point. “We are well aware of her plans. But we also resent your demigod camps and your gods.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coming from the kids who have their powers only </span>
  <em>
    <span>because</span>
  </em>
  <span> of the gods,” I pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Wards are a contradictory system, it’s true. We are the forsaken, those who have chosen to adapt to our enemies’ ways and fight their reign using their own power. But we are built to become superior to them. Though our origins began with them, we have grown far beyond them. Your camps, however, are an unstable and unpredictable force. It was the negligence of the gods that incited the incident with Kronos and Typhon and that began the Second Titan War, and it is the negligence of the gods that allowed Gaea’s armies to rise to power and for your camps to tear each other apart so easily. Regardless of what Boss’s decision is, we will aid you or aid the giants. But we will do nothing to stop the destruction of your people.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy’s grip tightened on Riptide. I could feel his anger seeping through the water and starting to boil it around us. The tidal waves of the sea crashed against Quake’s platform, though if Quake was concerned by this, he didn’t show it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you hate us? Or do you look down upon us? Just because we don’t treat our campers like slaves? Maybe you’re all soldiers, maybe you don’t have any room for fun or even </span>
  <em>
    <span>humanity</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but that doesn’t make you better than us. Camp Half-Blood may not be perfect, but it’s home to </span>
  <em>
    <span>dozens</span>
  </em>
  <span> of campers who would be dead without such a sanctuary. The gods may have been negligent before, but they’re going to change for the better. Camp Jupiter’s got some bad apples, but most of them are still good people who stick together to defend the peaceful lives of those in New Rome. There will </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> be corruption so long as there is humanity, but there will also be those willing to stand and defend </span>
  <em>
    <span>against</span>
  </em>
  <span> that corruption. So what are </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to be?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Me?” Quake frowned. “Why ask me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because you’re human too. You’re just a kid, just like us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A kid…? What does </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to do with anything?” Quake seemed genuinely puzzled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Being a kid doesn’t mean anything to you, does it?” I guessed. “Because age doesn’t matter to the Wards? Because you’re a kid made in a lab, you’ve been fighting all your life, haven’t you? And you’ve never known what having a choice meant.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know what it means to have a choice,” Quake protested. “I’ve seen the other Freebies. I’ve studied humanity ever since Boss took me in.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you think that the lives of all those demigods who are doing their own part in protecting others - if you think their lives are forfeit, then you must be </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrible</span>
  </em>
  <span> at that studying thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t seem like a bad person, Quake,” I said. “Do you </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> want to fight us?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake paused. For a moment, I thought I saw him considering the notion. Then, he spoke. “My opinion has nothing to do with the situation. I don’t know what I want because I don’t want anything. I just want to do what Boss says. She says that I must kill you to become complete. Because I am still weak.” He held up his hands like he was ashamed of them, like he hated them even though it wasn’t like he had control over how they looked or worked. “I must become stronger because Boss says that I must.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re loyal to her,” I noted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She is Boss. She is my superior. I exist to serve her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one exists to serve,” Percy protested. “You’re your own person, regardless of what you were born to do or whatever destiny says you </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Quake clenched his hand into a fist. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to serve her. I want to make her happy. I want to stay with her. But…I am weak. I must not be weak anymore.” He flicked his hand towards the Argo II. The dome encasing the ship retreated back into the sea, revealing some of the crew on the deck rushing about trying to do something. “You will fight me, Perseus Jackson, or I will destroy your ship and any chance you have of reaching Athens.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He held his hand up towards the ship and then clenched it into a fist. An enormous stone pillar shot out of the ocean at an angle and pierced straight through the ship’s hull with an enormous </span>
  <em>
    <span>BOOM!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Percy and I couldn’t help our panic. A hit like that could sink the entire ship! Nike could escape from the stables, some of the rooms might be destroyed, some of the crew might be thrown overboard!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can do that until your ship is nothing but tinder,” Quake warned. “Now you will fight me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay! Okay! Just don’t sink the ship! Sink it </span>
  <em>
    <span>after</span>
  </em>
  <span> I die, all right?” As if Percy really intended to die after a threat like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nonsense. If you die, I will have no reason to stay here. Your ship will remain intact so long as you fight me, regardless of the outcome of the battle. But that means that you will have to kill </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> or be killed yourself. If there is no retreat and no surrender! Fight me with everything you have!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And with that, Quake launched himself forward to attack.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I know this is just the preamble to the actual fight, I love writing fight scenes but it takes inspiration to get through them (Rick doesn't like long fight scenes in his stories for a reason, eh?). Though technically, I had to add the Quake confrontation part to the chapter after I decide to split off the next section into the next chapter and add in the Quake thing just to pad out the length.<br/>I swear I'll get to the actual fight scene next time. Swear. I'll get to it eventually. I swear.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. New Names</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Update 4 of 4<br/>The longest, most rambly, non-main-plot-driven-mildly-my-plot-driven chapter in this update session!<br/>Seriously though I'm sorry to anyone who doesn't like rambling. I give extra chapters just to make up for this kind of nonsense.</p><p>Enjoy? :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>First Person: Emily</p><p>Training under Famine was exhausting, to say the least.</p><p>Rei and Kaze had been willing to open up very little about their time in the Wards, but it wasn’t hard for me to discern the general terribleness and abuse that the training entailed.</p><p>Only a few days of this. I only had to endure a few days of this before the world was either destroyed or we somehow managed to pull everyone together to manage a victory. A part of me started to want Gaea to end the world already to get out of this training.</p><p>Of course the universe wouldn’t be that nice to me.</p><p>“What time is it, anyway?” I sighed. My entire body was aching from Famine’s physical training regimen, and my mind was aching from her sticking a weird cordycep in my ear that allowed her to read my thoughts to try and train my mental prowess. As if emotional powers couldn’t get exhausting enough <em> without </em> the professional, planty training regimen.</p><p>“Asking how long until you get out of training?” Famine hissed. She was a drill sergeant more terrifying than any monsters I’d faced during this war with giants and Primordials. At the moment, I couldn’t tell if I was more afraid of her than even when I’d witnessed the very heart of the Primordials themselves.</p><p>Escaping that encounter had been a miracle itself. But our team had all changed from such a trial. There was no avoiding the scars of facing down the very deities (deity?) that was connected to every part of this world - this <em> universe </em>. There wasn’t a way to put it into words. It was just a feeling, one that easily tore our humanity apart.</p><p>In the end, we woke up again, but it’s hard to say we’re lucky for it.</p><p>But I could still feel terror at the look Famine was giving me right now, so I guess that means my humanity is fine for now. I’m…relieved?</p><p>“Just asking how long we have for me to get this right. A ticking clock always helps motivate!” I said, hoping my voice wasn’t shaking <em> too </em> badly. Who was I kidding? Hiding things from Famine was impossible, so I might as well just accept that she knew I was terrified of her and at a disadvantage. I was basically at her mercy, and there was no denying nor hiding it.</p><p>“We have as long as we need,” Famine said simply. “We can have an eternity if we need it.”</p><p>“E…ternity? You’re kidding, right?”</p><p>Famine dropped to the grass beneath her. The last trace of daylight light was on the horizon; the sun had already dropped beneath the ocean and all that remained was the dim shades of light blue that were fading into the darkness of the night sky. The stars had begun to appear, ever so slightly.</p><p>Tomorrow was the final day we had. I hoped the others had made it to Athens all right. I wondered if Reyna, Nico, Ane, and Hedge were closing in on Camp Half-Blood soon.</p><p>I wondered how the Primordials were doing. It gave me anxiety not knowing what they were doing. Though I suppose in the back of my mind, I knew where they were. At the very least, I could sense that they <em> weren’t </em> trying another mass destruction event, but that wasn’t really a good place for the bar to be.</p><p>“Are you aware of my origins? I told you about it before.”</p><p>“Oh? How you’re technically just a ward of Demeter?”</p><p>“I was born from a tear of Kronos and given life and sentience by Demeter. Thanks to that, I have the ability to siphon energies.”</p><p>“Yeah, I think I remember reading that on Pain’s report about you guys…”</p><p>“I am able to siphon energies from other living things, but I can also manipulate time energies. In essence, I can give us as much time as we need.”</p><p>“So you have time dilation powers, like Kaze and Azrael?”</p><p>“It is less dilation and more actual control over the flow of time itself. It gets exponentially more difficult the more time that I am attempting to control. Even the greatest of deities can only manage a few minutes’ time at once. Holding time within your very palm is not an easy feat, and in fact, it can be used as a weapon.”</p><p>“What? You mean you can…give <em> time </em> some kind of physical form or something?”</p><p>“Yes.” Famine looked at me with interest, more interest than I’d seen from her during our time together. It seemed that just like everyone else, Famine had her passions that inspired her to lose herself in her thoughts. “In minute quantities, time can be affected just as any physical matter can be. Though, of course, this only applies to those who are capable of manipulating it, but we who can touch and mold time follow physics similar to that of the matter you yourselves can interact with.”</p><p>“I suppose that makes sense. Though it may not be a dimension we can access, to other creatures what we call ‘<em> time </em>’ could probably have its own set of rules just like we are balls of atoms and stuff that make contact by repelling electrons. Like a fourth dimension to our third dimension being as complex as our three dimensions are to a two-dimensional being.”</p><p>Famine nodded. “Exactly. When broken down, the concepts of science and magic are intertwined. Think of time as…well, think of it like the physical matter we interact with each day. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, merely manipulated to change form.” She held her hand up and a paste that resembled silly-putty or Play-Doh appeared in - or rather <em> from </em> - her palm. “Time can be compressed and manipulated in small amounts.” She pinched the Play-Doh into a teardrop shape. “This is an advanced technique I’ve worked to perfect - er, in visual format, of course. Basically, I can compress two instances in time so that this bit of time here is taken out. Depending on how I use the power, I can jump slightly forward in time or extend a part of time to last longer. But this remaining time right here that we skipped-” She pulled out the teardrop from the putty and rolled it between her fingers. “This time doesn’t just disappear.”</p><p>“Because like matter, it can’t be created or destroyed. So you can store it?”</p><p>Famine nodded. One of her prehensile hair limbs reached down and grabbed another small ball of the Play-Doh. Then a few more joined in. Famine had a dozen white hair tentacles holding up the putty, but the glob in her palm hadn’t lost a lot in the long run.</p><p>“I can only hold so much time at once, but I can put it together into a single mass and then release it into the timeline all at once for however much time I stored adds up to. It creates a massively disruptive vacuum, and it equates to the decompression process to be turned into an attack.”</p><p>“Time as a weapon…” I shrugged. “Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given all that I’ve already seen.”</p><p>Famine sucked up the putty and absorbed it back into her body. I pondered how she herself wasn’t just made out of plants; she was made out of a sort of living putty herself, able to mold into whatever form she needed. She probably chose her appearance, as most gods did. Famine herself admitted that she shouldn’t be called a full god, not in the same league as the Olympians or anything, but that meant if I couldn’t find a way to control <em> her </em>, then I’d have no chance with any of the other gods she intended for me to be able to control.</p><p>“I’ve always grown up with time as a moldable aspect. I don’t know what it’s like to not be able to control time. Though what I intend at the moment is time dilation, similar to Ventus and Death.”</p><p>“Why do you guys call Kaze and Azrael ‘<em> Ventus </em> ’ and ‘ <em> Death? </em>’”</p><p>Famine shrugged. “That’s what Boss has them labeled as. We all have code names. Or rather, <em> new </em> names. It’s a cultish indoctrination thing, though to a lesser extent.”</p><p>“Indoctrination?”</p><p>“With both Lab Kids and Freebies, there is a constant risk of us gaining our own moral compasses and deciding that we will not follow orders because we do not believe it is right. However, it is free will that allows us to be dangerous; they cannot take our free will away from us if they hope for us to fight at our best. Free will means we can decide what we find right and wrong, and there is always a possibility that we will not concur with their methods nor their ideals. Aligning our goals is the easiest way to get what they want from us, and so they follow basic methods of manipulation. Sometimes it can get a little more intense for others, like Seven, but for others like Pain, it’s hardly needed at all. One of the techniques essentially renames us, or at the very least gives us a code name in an attempt to separate our personal feelings from our orders. The intent is to make us feel special, and to draw a line.”</p><p>“But Kaze and Azrael have never joined your group before. I’m pretty sure they’ve probably never even heard of you all before. Well, I mean Kaze knew you as Winter, but-”</p><p>“That was a long time ago,” she snapped.</p><p>She exhaled, as though releasing the tension that had built up upon hearing her old name. Maybe it was because she was a god-like being, but it almost felt like I could see the emotions in the air being expelled by her. She could keep very strong control over her emotions, which made it hard for me to understand her and almost frustrating when I got no readings from her in terms of my power.</p><p>It had taken me time to get used to feeling the emotions and feelings of everyone around me, and it had gotten scary when that power had started to grow stronger and stronger to the point that I worried I’d forget what it felt like to…well to <em> feel </em> things for myself. But with Famine (and honestly a few more people on Boss’s team, but I’d spent the most time with Famine), I no longer connected with her just by being around her like with everyone else. And it was utterly empty. Utterly terrifying.</p><p>Whenever emotion <em> did </em> flare up, Famine could almost manipulate it like it was a physical object, moving it from her chest to her arm and flicking it out her finger or, like just now, exhaling it through her breath. Emotion was just an object to her, like a weed. There was obviously no stopping emotion from happening, but it was easy for her to merely pull the weed the moment it appeared before it could corrupt any other part of her garden.</p><p>Everything she could manipulate - plants, life energy, time, emotions - even the intangible things were just objects to her.</p><p>It was easy for me to see the godhood when stuff like that happened with Famine. It wasn’t like she fooled me into believing she was human, though it wasn’t like she fooled me into believing she was a god, either. She was in this weird zone of being in between, which I guess is an accurate description of her entire existence.</p><p>But maybe this was why she stayed with the Wards at all, why she could tolerate being where she was, serving a team of people who destroyed everything that had once been important to her. She threw away any emotion that would force her to remember such times, whether she was doing it intentionally or not. As such, she was preventing herself from remembering, from feeling. Maybe because it hurt too much, because she was scared.</p><p>“Kaze and Azrael, as you call them, were to be our next members. Boss started this team with just her and Quake, long ago. Slowly, she was assigned more and more of us, and Ventus and Death were next. Thanks to you, Death escaped the Wards before he could be brought to us.”</p><p>“Oh, you mean when Kaze had to sacrifice himself to become a Reanimation in order for Tsuchi and Kandai to bail us out…”</p><p>“In a normal situation, Death would not have been able to escape us. He was being transferred to Boss’s location from the Facility he had been training in for some time now. Death supposedly had the ability to instantly destroy even a god’s very essence. It wasn’t just about sending them to Tartarus; he could literally crush our very existence in the palm of his hand. Little did they realize how special Death <em> truly </em> was. With power even stronger than the gods, he was able to overpower the Celestial-Breaker technology.”</p><p>“You mean how they were able to use those helmets to resist my powers?”</p><p>Famine nodded. “Celestial-Breaker technology was designed and refined by humans ever since the Renaissance era. It improved especially once Forge became a part of the development team.”</p><p>“How <em> did </em> Forge join? I’m guessing he was bribed with the idea that he’d get to create stuff.”</p><p>“Like I said, he’s lived his life in servitude, and so when he was captured and given orders, he just followed them. In fact, most of the Celestial-Breaker success comes from Forge’s upgrades. There’s only so much meddling humans can do even if they <em> do </em> have the grit, determination, and enchanted metals.”</p><p>“If he’s so important to their R&amp;D, why is he roaming about with this team?”</p><p>“Because Boss’s team is meant to be the best of the best. Sandman, though he may not look it, is the most powerful creation of Somnous the Wards have been able to create. Quake is the top of his class in terms of his Earthshaker abilities. Pain is the only one the Wards have ever found capable of controlling not only pain but inflicting actual wounds onto her targets. Hatter is the most powerful recreation of the more ancient forms of Dionysus’s power. Mirage is…well, Mirage. Enough said.”</p><p>“You said Mirage was a creation of the Mist, right, but they’re not actually that old?”</p><p>Famine nodded. “Only recently have they managed to make Mirage out of the very Mist itself, and they were lucky that Mirage plays along with their schemes. But Mirage could easily destroy the entire Ward system if they got so inclined. Even Celestial-Breaker technology can’t combat the Mist if it’s dense enough, and if it has an actual will behind it. Especially if that will gets violently strong.”</p><p>“Has Mirage ever gotten mad before?”</p><p>“They’ve gotten <em> upset </em>. And that is more than enough reason to fear when they actually take things seriously. Ever since meeting Lust, Mirage had settled down. The two of them get sent on missions that allow them to kill and manipulate and torture, and that sates their sadistic tendencies enough for the Wards. But I personally think they were sent to Boss because they were truly beginning to fear they wouldn’t be able to control those two.”</p><p>“Lust is special too, then?”</p><p>Famine nodded. “She was built to harness the power of Primordial Nyx, and among the other creations that were built in the same context, Lust got the powers of the Kharities. It’s easy to forget that among the many children of Nyx that live in Tartarus, she also gave birth to concepts of Day and jovial pursuits. Such concepts are allowed to exist in this realm, unlike the more destructive ones trapped down in Tartarus. I believe one of them even married Hypnos and became a goddess of hallucinatory happiness and such.”</p><p>“Every family has an oddball or two.”</p><p>“Seven had to work hard to make it to where she is. Pestilence and War were Freebies who had to train and build their way up to being the best in their respective classes; after all, there are many children born for fighting and medical killing. But Pestilence managed to develop her powers over disease and made it her strong-suit rather than doing what most of her kin did and become healers or try using music and light as weapons. War wasn’t special at first. She was just one of many destructively violent fighters with the powers of war within her. Her Berserker ability seemed, at first, as trivial as any chaotic power that could make one lose their wits with a lust for blood and battle.”</p><p>“But?”</p><p>“But then War proved that she was more determined to be special than even her violent peers, and so she figured out that her Berserker ability could be used in a smarter fashion. Studying the Athena children, she vowed that she could do smart warfare better than they could. And so her Berserker ability actually mutated after its development. Most abilities don’t actually <em> mutate </em> . They can be pushed to be utilized in creative ways, but the very foundations of one’s powers usually don’t actually change at the base level. But out of sheer stubbornness and many, <em> many </em> hours of testing, War managed to transform her Berserker ability into something that could psychologically transform someone into a psychopath and sociopath. War could use her powers not only to simply turn her victims mad, but she could transform them into political weapons as well. She could turn her <em> victims </em> into smart, cunning, and manipulative monsters. Basically, she could turn other people into Lust but without the magical abilities.”</p><p>“Sounds…scary.”</p><p>“Though we have someone like Lust on our team, the mere fact that War managed to mutate her power and the fact that she’s so physically strong, destructive, and she’s got a wide range to her powers were enough to get her on this team. Even if having strong abilities was common among children - especially Freebies - of Ares or Mars or other war gods, War could potentially mutate not only <em> her </em> abilities, but that of others around her. Boss was given instructions to test War in that regard. For Seven, it wasn’t as easy to prove herself.”</p><p>“But can’t Seven literally control odds and fate itself? I’d say that’s pretty impressive.”</p><p>“Yes, but Seven was born among many who were specifically designed for that purpose. She has many siblings who can do things that are far superior to what <em> she </em> can do, and there was physically no way for her to get any better than them because they were <em> created </em> the way they were. Her siblings can manipulate odds, they can predict all events, they can tug at the strands of the Fates in numerous ways. One of her siblings can change people and events using tarot cards. All of them have to go through a test where they must force lightning to strike a location five times in succession, where they are shot at by snipers without warning and must deflect the bullets to specific targets, stuff like that.”</p><p>I wanted to say ‘<em> That sounds horrible </em>,’ but I knew that it would just be redundant. All of them knew already how tough the Ward program was better than probably even their fellow Ward kids. Who was I to give my opinion when Famine’s training had likely been merciful by comparison?</p><p>“Seven struggled at first. Coins appeared to help her focus, same way her sibling had tarot cards. But her true ability is to be able to feel and sense the strands of the Fates and tug at them. Essentially, it’s a boost to the power she and her siblings already have to manipulate odds and fate. But overall, it’s not that special. She can play the strands of fate like a harp, but apparently that’s not good enough.”</p><p>“She can ruin the delicate fabric of reality if she were to just play with fate like she’s rocking out on a banjo.”</p><p>Famine gave a sideways smirk. I could sense a small hint of amusement flare up within her. “While that is an amusing analogy, it’s not akin to what she does. Seven underestimates herself. Her self-doubt results in the failing of her performance. The consequences of failure further dishearten her. She hates the Wards. She hates Freebies for the life they had outside of the Wards that they gave up just to join the Wards. Though she can pull at the very fabric of this reality, Seven ended up trapped in her own web of pain. In the end, she still believes she is inferior to the rest of us. But there was a reason for each of us being put on this team. There is no such thing as a straggler being allowed to join just for the hell of it.”</p><p>“So what did she do? You said that War wasn’t special, but she managed to mutate her powers and demonstrated a unique skill. What did Seven do?”</p><p>Famine laid back and stared up at the sky frozen in time. Now that I properly looked, I could see the light distortions forming something of a dome around us, like we were looking through very clear glass and it was difficult to tell there was a barrier, but it was definitely there when the light caught it at the right angle. That was Famine trapping us in a bubble of time.</p><p>“Well, what do you think?”</p><p>“Hmm…well the most obvious guess would be that she did something really strong that none of her peers were capable of, maybe something that she herself isn’t even aware of. I suppose the easiest assumption would be that she broke past the Celestial-Breaker tech?”</p><p>Famine nodded. “Good start, but go on.”</p><p>I honestly didn’t know whether this was a test or not, and I didn’t know what else there was to guess. I tried to think back to when I’d met Seven earlier. When she released me from my prison, Famine had warned me that half the team had ways to counter my abilities or were outright immune, so I shouldn’t get any ideas now that I had my powers unrestrained. Not that I really had anything planned anyway. I had no doubt that if I tried running, they’d be able to catch me one way or another before I even made it over the hill to Camp Half-Blood.</p><p>I focused on Seven’s readings, trying to imagine having bookmarked her within my mind.</p><p>Resentment laid strewn within her soul, both inside and out. And fear, not living up to expectations. But she was happy where she was, with this team, and regardless of whether she died or not, she would go into the coming battles doing what she always had: as she was told.</p><p>But playing the strands of fate like an instrument, an instrument that no one else could see, not even when she was manipulating them?</p><p>What if it was like what Rei did, falling into a state of meditation when she got her mother’s power-up boost? She was still very aware of her actions, but at the same time she was on auto-pilot. Her ultimate goal was to eliminate the threat that had killed her and put her in that state in the first place, and to that end she became a hyper-focused killing machine, even if she could still resemble a regular human simply because she was so used to that state and because of her Primordial boost making things easier.</p><p>“Maybe she used that skill of seeing the strands of the Fates and played an actual song? Songs have a way of manipulating us, don’t they? That trance you can get into when the emotions of the composer manage to pass through to you properly.”</p><p>“Yes. Though I likened her ability to playing a harp, that is just the analogy that is commonly used when describing that power that she and her siblings have. But Seven was the only one who thought to play the strands of Fate as a true melody, allowing them to guide her as much as she guided them. It’s one thing to take advantage of the fact that they can manipulate fate, it’s another for them to actually work <em> with </em> fate and get it to cooperate.”</p><p>“She won over fate with compassion, huh?”</p><p>Famine shrugged. “Who can say? Seven herself isn’t aware of this power nor how to actually command it. At the moment, she can merely work <em> with </em> the strands of fate to make a melody, but in doing so she gains more control than her siblings can ever manage. She just can’t direct the melody herself yet. But the Wards had hope for her, so here she is.”</p><p>“The Three Fates must really not like her - or her siblings for that matter.”</p><p>“Oh, they are constantly at odds. Many of Seven’s siblings die upon creation. It takes the current generations protecting them while they are young for them even to survive birth and then protect them until they are strong enough to protect themselves. After all, the Fates hold the strings that can end any lives that are mortal. The Wards fear this and have taken many precautions in case the Fates attack.”</p><p>“I thought that the Fates cut the strings of peoples’ lives wasn’t actually them deciding who lived and who died; I thought it was the other way around, and they merely cut the strings as a <em> result </em> of someone’s death. Like, to make a visual cue.”</p><p>“Correlation and causation,” Famine shrugged. “In any case, the point is that everyone on Boss’s team is special. All of us have roles to play. I wonder, though. Seven gets affected when Boss uses her powers, and Seven is incapable of tugging at any strings surrounding Boss. I suppose that’s the reason that Boss is in charge; none of us are capable of harming her.”</p><p>“Is Boss mean? N-Not to offend anyone! I just wanted to know what kind of leader she is.”</p><p>“She is a good leader. As I told you before, we all follow her because we <em> want </em> to. And what path she follows, so too will we.”</p><p>“What path does she follow now? Do you know?”</p><p>“Precisely? That is impossible to know.”</p><p>“You said that I have a chance of swaying the decision of this team, that I could make them help my friends rather than hinder them! Did you lie to me?!”</p><p>“No. I am confident that you can sway the hearts of this team even in the short time you have with us.”</p><p>“Infinite time, technically.”</p><p>Famine chuckled. “Yes, infinite time as I give it to you. The others on the outside, however, will come and go as they please. While within my bubble of time, I can still feel everything outside of it, but nothing happens out there because I can bring time to a halt.”</p><p>“Like Kaze…yeah, I know how that feels because of Kaze.”</p><p>“Time dilation is lonely, Emily Hezesto. That’s why I don’t use it often. If Boss needs something of me, she can break through the dilation, but it’s unlikely that she’ll need me within the few seconds that are passing while we spend our eternity in here.”</p><p>“What’s the longest amount of time you’ve ever condensed?”</p><p>She paused in thought. She genuinely seemed to be searching her memories for an answer. “Hm. Well I would have to say nearing…three years?”</p><p>“Three <em> years?! </em> That’s insane! What would you be doing in that amount of time?”</p><p>“Three years is nothing compared to eternity, Emily Hezesto. I have only lived a few thousand years, but even <em> that </em> makes three years seem inconsequential.”</p><p>“A lot can happen in three years. I know that you gods probably don’t feel the passage of time the same as mortals do, but you <em> do </em> feel the passage of time through your interactions with others. Maybe <em> you </em> don’t have to worry about your death, but you can still keep track of how long you have until your friend dies. Every life means something, even if it’s not your own.”</p><p>“You get used to losing people after it happens too many times. Eventually it grows too painful to continue focusing on the mortality of others.”</p><p>“So have you reached that point yet?”</p><p>“I think so. Or at least, that’s how I am at the moment. I don’t remember very clearly, but I think once I was dedicated to protecting others - protecting good people from bad ones.”</p><p>“So what changed, do you think?”</p><p>Famine shrugged. “I don’t know. They did something to me in the Wards.”</p><p>“The Wards…people who have managed to enslave demigods, resist and restrain our powers, and who plan to fight gods and monsters alike in the name of protecting humanity. What kind of people <em> are </em> they?”</p><p>Famine rose to her feet. “I’ve decided. I don’t want to follow the Wards, nor the orders of those who they support.”</p><p>“Whoa. That was sudden.”</p><p>“It really wasn’t.” She turned to stare down at me like I was a rare flower she’d never seen before. “You’ve been influencing me ever since you were freed from your prison and your powers restored. No, even before that. You’ve been influencing me since we first met.”</p><p>“But…I failed all your training exercises. All that mental meditating and then physical training-</p><p>“I didn’t realize it either. Because that is how strong you are. It is one thing to overpower another’s will intentionally, but it’s another to do it so subtly that they not only don’t fight back, but they come to accept your influence and make it their own will of their own volition.”</p><p>“That’s…scary.” I averted my gaze to the grass. “I told you before, I don’t…I don’t like that kind of stuff.”</p><p>Famine knelt in front of me and reached to push my glasses up. One of her hair-limbs reached up to sweep my hair out of my face so she could look me in the eye. “That’s right. You have a good heart. Which is precisely why you were given this power in the first place: because you won’t abuse it. Those with power use that power. I have never met anyone as pure-hearted as you, Emily Hezesto. And that is why perhaps even the Primordials were unaware of how much power they gave you. You were built in an effort to fix this situation they were put into.”</p><p>“So I was built this way as some sort of tool?”</p><p>“In terms of such ancient and ineffable beings, we are all tools in the end, aren’t we? Humanity itself is a means of amusement, like a child playing house or playing with their pets.”</p><p>“Rei <em> did </em> say something about the Primordials putting their consciousnesses into hosts because they could interact with the world that way.”</p><p>Famine nodded. “I’ve struggled since my conception with what I should be. My options were human or god, and after living with both for a certain period of time, I still wasn’t willing to make my decision. Humanity is a cruel, cruel, lonely, sad place to be. But it is only sad because it can also make me happy in ways that being a deity cannot. There are things that I can do in this realm that I could never do if I lived in Olympus. I can only imagine the loneliness and apathy that can come of being something like those Primordials.”</p><p>I snorted. “But what about Gaea? Seems to me like she isn’t that disconnected from humanity and her urge to destroy everything, her frustration when we foil her plans, her…”</p><p>“Is it really frustration? Or is it mere irritation, and then she just moves onto her next plan?”</p><p>“I mean, maybe that’s what it looks like. When you’re as powerful as the very earth itself, a few little demigods like us making headway still feels like flies being upgraded to wasps. They were always buzzing around and annoying, maybe now you’ve realized they can sting you if you aren’t cautious, but in the end they’re still insects. You feel like you have many ways of dealing with them, someone else you can call to exterminate them at any time. You can destroy their nest, and they’ll be angry, but in the end all you need is a little preparation to get rid of them all with ease…”</p><p>“Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps it’s a combination of such a superiority complex and a lack of truly understanding humanity that gives her the arrogance that she has. But one way or another, she is just like the other Primordials: she is bored and lonely and if she ever got what she wanted it would never produce an empire as beautiful as you flourishing humans can create.”</p><p>“Which is why the most ancient of the Primordials, the one at the top who’s smarter and wiser and also more uncaring than any of their creations - that’s why Khaos needs to use a host. That’s why Khaos split into Chaos and Order, and why they made that host system, and why they need-”</p><p>“An intermediary such as yourself. Khaos could never appreciate humanity and this world and any of their creations in their true state because no matter what they were, they would always be beneath Khaos. Khaos is simply incapable of sympathizing. But it’s important for a leader to understand their people and their creations if they wish for the society to flourish.”</p><p>“And there have been many failures in the past…”</p><p>Famine nodded. “Gaea and her husbands, the Titans, the gods, and humans. Not even just Greek and Roman religions either - <em> all </em> of them. Khaos has finally managed to create a somewhat stable society that keeps all the religions and all the humans stable, and in order to gather information and improve the world - or at the very least keep it growing to better heights - they take on the form of Chaos and Order who then in turn use hosts to properly experience human society.”</p><p>“But once Gaea and Tartarus started meddling, Chaos became unstable and then so did Order and it all popped off into a downward spiral! And now, Khaos - er, the one with the K - has been restored! And I’m not there to keep them in check! I don’t even know how I could even when I <em> was </em> with them!”</p><p>“It’s not only that. The being that is possessing your friend, my…my old friend Rei Chikara…whatever is possessing them isn’t Khaos.”</p><p>“But…but it’s a combination of Order and Chaos. That’s what Khaos is, isn’t it?”</p><p>Famine frowned. Her brow tightened only slightly when she was thinking, but I’d never seen her think about something so intensely. Maybe Famine was right; I <em> was </em> having an effect on her without even realizing it. “If everything you’ve told me is accurate, then I can’t possibly see how Rei is hosting the real Khaos. Khaos had to split themself into Chaos and Order for a reason; Khaos themself couldn’t form a human-like consciousness that was weak enough to be stored within a host.”</p><p>“Yeah, I mean Rei was only able to hold them both because of her undying physics from her mother’s power…”</p><p>“And those are just a fraction of Chaos and Order’s <em> true </em> power. It’s just the part they’ve dedicated to studying humanity. Khaos, the most ancient one, was incapable of creating a human-consciousness part of themself.”</p><p>“So…whatever Rei has in her is like…a mutation? Order and Chaos together technically make Ancient Khaos, but the human-possessing fractions of them aren’t fully Order and Chaos. So what we combined wasn’t <em> actually </em> the full Chaos and Order into Ancient Khaos.”</p><p>“Mortals would never be allowed such power,” Famine affirmed. “And especially because of Gaea and Tartarus meddling, especially because of Rei and Veon failing their trials - or at least failing to pass them in the standard fashion - and because you were interfering with those trials switching them back and forth into hosts who had yet to prove their worthiness yet all while they were under threat…it all added up to some terrible mutation, like you said.”</p><p>“But that means that what Rei has isn’t the real Khaos…”</p><p>“Let us call them Magatsu.”</p><p>“Magatsu?”</p><p>“It means something along the lines of evil, disaster, catastrophe, taint, and chaos. Appropriate, I would say. In any case, if this Magatsu is truly what we believe they are, then it means they are the most unrestrained, corruptible Primordial-like deity that has ever been capable of existing on this plane of reality.”</p><p>“When we were down in Tartarus, Chaos and Order nearly decided to set off the end of the world, all the apocalypses that had ever been prophesied about, and probably even more than that.”</p><p>“I would say that is the most genuine example of what the true Order and Chaos can do when combined in an unhealthy state.”</p><p>“So if Magatsu is an imperfect and unstable version of Order and Chaos when brought together, that means that Magatsu is <em> also </em> looking to destroy the world?”</p><p>“But because they are the more human version of such a Primordial entity, they’ve essentially decided to have fun with the destruction. Because if nothing else, humans incite curiosity and creativity. While a regular god might just do their job, humans inspire them to do it creatively - even to the point of defying logic.”</p><p>“I can stop them, right?” I found myself snatching Famine’s hands. “You can teach me. You said you’d teach me how to use my powers so that I can control the Primordials. I can stop Magatsu!”</p><p>Famine looked slightly startled. “Er, yes, that is what I said. However, we can’t be sure your power will be useful.” She carefully slipped her hands free of mine, but she, in turn, wrapped her fingers around mine in a sort of placating manner. “Your power was given to you with the intention of assisting Chaos and Order in their separate parts. Magatsu is a mutation, as we concluded. Meaning that unless your power grows to somehow match the mutation, you won’t have as much effect.”</p><p>“But if I have the power to possibly separate them back into their component parts, shouldn’t I use it? Shouldn’t I at least <em> try? </em> If I don’t do this, not only could Gaea possibly destroy the world and the camps, but Magatsu could make it even <em> worse! </em> If they’ve become some kind of sadistic entity, then they could come up with even more creative and torturous ways of destroying the world that regular old Primordial Gaea could ever come up with! Forget Gaea and the monsters inheriting the world or whatever for their evil empire, Magatsu could destroy them too!”</p><p>“Calm yourself, Emily Hezesto.” Somehow, after so many months of being the one to comfort the ones around me, I found myself being comforted by the calm and controlled Famine. Her hands pulsated with that odd warmth that came of a person whose body wasn’t entirely human. It was oddly comforting, like if I leaned against her it’d resemble lying in one of those bean-bag chairs that could just mold to hold your body. “Your power is indeed strong, and it is restrained by your morality and self-doubt. Which is normally a good thing. But at the moment we need you to have faith in yourself and your decisions. If you can do that, I’ve no doubt you might just have the power you need to end this war single-handedly.”</p><p>“I…you overestimate me.” That was odd. Maybe I just wasn’t used to Famine’s stoic face giving a genuine compliment, but I felt flattered.</p><p>“I will do my best to teach you, Emily Hezesto, but in the end, it must be you who finds the courage to decide that your power bends to your will, and that your choices are the right ones to make.”</p><p>“And what if I make the wrong choices? What if I screw up?”</p><p>She shrugged. “We’ll all be doomed anyway, so might as well give it a shot. Even if you manage to stop this Magatsu imitation of the Primordial Khaos, Gaea’s war still rages on. It might take everything you have to stop just Magatsu alone. If that is the case - and I think it will be - then your friends are still going to have to stop the giants and unite the gods.”</p><p>Famine’s words shouldn’t have been comforting, but they made me relax. Knowing that everything wasn’t all on me somehow made things easier; knowing that the others were fighting just as hard to win their own battles and that I had to live up to their expectations felt easier than thinking that I alone had the power to save everyone and just wasn’t trying hard enough.</p><p>“All right then. Teach me. But, uh, can we do some less strenuous physical exercises?”</p><p>Famine laughed. It was a deep and warm and powerful laugh that made me wonder if Famine had truly laughed like this before - if it had been a long time, or if it had even been ever. Even Famine seemed surprised by it.</p><p>She fell back into the grass with her hands releasing mine to support her. Her head raised up to gaze at the frozen sky. “Life is hard, Emily Hezesto. A little extra training before the end of the world is necessary.” She had an amused smile on her face.</p><p>I wanted to protest further, but instead I blurted, “You can just call me Emily. Or Em.”</p><p>She tapped her lip as if in thought. “Maybe Boss can give you a code name too. Considering that I offered to make you part of our family and all. Being a part of this team means you’re special, and you are certainly special, Emily Hezesto.”</p><p>“My code name would be ‘<em> Emily </em>,’” I insisted.</p><p>She laughed again. “I would go with something more like ‘<em> Hearth </em>.’”</p><p>I frowned at her, but it was difficult for me to pull off a proper scowl. I must’ve looked like a pouting puppy at best.</p><p>“But Emily will do for now,” she conceded.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Guys, scratch that, I went and looked while you were reading the chapter and the first of these four chapters, 'Introductions,' is 500 words longer than this one, but then again, that chapter wasn't one single 7,000 word POV so I mean victories?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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